Italy cruised to a seven-try bonus-point 52-8 victory over Namibia in their Rugby World Cup Pool A opener in Saint-Etienne on Saturday.
It was a 23rd straight defeat in as many World Cup matches for the African side.
Italian star wing Ange Capuozzo was amongst the try scorers, with Lorenzo Cannone, Paolo Garbisi, Dino Lamb, Epalahame Faiva, Manuel Zuliani and Paolo Odogwu also dotting down, while Gerswin Mouton replied for Namibia.
Full-back Tommaso Allan contributed 17 points with the boot in a faultless display.
'Proud of boys'
Namibia's South African coach Allister Coetzee said he was "really proud of the boys" despite failing to end their wait for a first World Cup win.
"They never gave up. They hung in there," said Coetzee.
"We struggled at stopping their lineout maul and also at scrum time. They are a good side.
"Towards the end it ballooned out a bit, but that is the difference in the conditioning when you come up against a Tier One country."
Frenetic start
Namibia started on the front foot with fly-half Tiaan Swanepoel kicking the first points of the game.
But those hopes quickly unraveled as Italy hit straight back with a penalty of their own from Allan.
And after Namibian hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld was sin-binned for cynically dragging down a rolling maul, Italy cut loose.
Italy are looking to make the knock-out stages for the first time and their coach Kieran Crowley said they will have to improve to stand any chance of making it to the quarter-finals.
"If you'd given me 50 points before the game I would have grabbed them, but we turned over about 22 balls and you can't afford to do that," said Crowley.
"But it was pretty hot out there and the boys are pretty gassed, so we'll take it and we'll move on."
