Wasps ran in nine sparkling tries against Treviso to equal their best performance in the Heineken Cup and keep their hopes of qualification for the knock-out stages alive.

The 2004 champions needed to rack up as many points as possible against the Italians to give themselves a chance of making it out of a competitive Pool 1 that includes French giants Castres and Perpignan.

They did so by cutting loose with Tom Rees, Josh Lewsey and Tom Voyce all scoring twice while Raphael Ibanez, Paul Sackey and Danny Cipriani also touched down and Mark Van Gisbergen kicked five conversions.

The try tally equalled their previous best in the 77-17 win over Toulouse at Loftus Road in 1997.

But most impressive of all was the superb distribution of teenage centre Dominic Waldouck, who picked up the man of the match award on his European Cup debut after being involved in four of the tries.

The door to a place in the knock-out stages had been edged open by Castres' 36-28 win over Perpignan on Saturday, meaning that Wasps can force their way into the quarter-finals by beating the two French sides in January.

Before getting there, though, they needed to take maximum points from their two games against the Italians, who have never got beyond the pool stages.

Wasps boss Ian McGeechan was forced to field a makeshift centre pairing with Ayoola Erinle injured and Fraser Waters left out so that Waldouck, 19, could make his Heineken Cup debut alongside Josh Lewsey.

The midfield change proved to be a productive one as Wasps secured the four-try bonus point within half-an-hour and the teenager had a hand or foot in three of the first five scores.

Ibanez rumbled his way over from a line-out drive three minutes into the game, then Waldouck took centre stage by threading a chip through the Treviso defence for Lewsey to touch down.

Rees added the third under the posts before Waldouck's handling put Lewsey over on the right after half-an-hour, only for the England star to limp off with a calf injury.

Lewsey was replaced by another 19-year-old making his European debut in former England Under-19 fly-half Danny Cipriani, who immediately linked up with Waldouck to put Voyce over in the corner.

Van Gisbergen added three conversions to establish a 31-0 lead and the only threat for the struggling Italians came from fly-half Andrea Mercato, who failed to hit the target with two eminently kickable penalty chances.

Two superb individual scores got the scoreboard moving again, first in the 42nd minute when Sackey struck from 70 metres, swerving past the last line of defence, and then when Rees claimed his second with a burst of pace that carried him 50 metres from the back of a lineout four minutes later.

Voyce claimed his second when Cipriani put him into the left-hand corner on the hour and 10 minutes from time the two teenagers linked up when Waldouck's assist set up Cipriani for the record equalling ninth try 10 minutes from time.