Clermont Auvergne ran in 12 tries as they stormed to an 82-0 victory over Aironi and kept their hopes of a place in the this season's Heineken Cup quarterfinals alive.

The French side really turned on the style against the Italian new boys and returned home with a much-needed bonus point to keep them in the hunt in Pool 4 to set up a winner takes all clash with Ulster in France next weekend.

Wings Sitiveni Sivivatu and Julien Malzieu both scored try hat-tricks, with fullback Lee Byrne crossing for a brace of tries and Alexandre Lapandry, Brock James, Elvis Vermeulen all scored against the Italians.

Aironi, who are in only their second season of European rugby and haven't won a game in the Pool this season, suffered their heaviest defeat in the tournament at the hands of the Top 14 outfit.

Clermont raced to a 47-0 lead at half-time and simply overwhelmed their Italian hosts with their pace and power in a devastating display of what the French side are capable on their day.

Scorers:

For Aironi:
None

For Clermont:
Tries: Sivivatu 3, Byrne 2, Lapandry 2, Malzieu 3, James, Vermeulen
Cons: Parra 4, James 7

Teams:

Aironi: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Giiulio Toniolatti, 13 Roberto Quartaroli, 12 Alberto Benettin, 11 Sinoti Sinoti, 10 Naas Olivier, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Josh Sole, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Nicola Cattina, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Lorenzo Romano, 2 Tommaso D'Apice, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements: 16 Roberto Santamaria, 17 Andrea de Marchi, 18 Fabio Staibano, 19 Simone Favaro, 20 Filippo Ferrarini, 21 Tyson Keats, 22 Matteo Pratichetti, 23 Gilberto Pavan.

Clermont: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 13 Regan King, 12 Gonzalo Canale, 11 Julien Malzieu, 10 Brock James, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Elvis Vermeulen (captain), 7 Julien Bardy, 6 Alexandre Lapandry, 5 Loic Jacquet, 4 Jamie Cudmore, 3 Daniel Kotze, 2 Ti'i Paulo, 1 Vincent Debaty.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Lionel Faure, 18 Clément Ric, 19 Nathan Hines, 20 Julien Bonnaire, 21 Kevin Senio, 22 Aurélien Rougerie, 23 Wesley Fofana.