Kevin Morgan celebrated a hat-trick in a 12-try victory as Swansea consolidated their strong position at the top of Heineken Cup Pool Two.

It was one-way traffic against the battered Italians, who had already suffered a 70-point hammering at the hands of Swansea last Sunday.

Swansea started slowly in difficult conditions and scored four tries in the first half to lead 25-3 at the interval, with two tries for Morgan and one apiece for Gavin Henson and Hywel Jenkins with the Italians down to 13 men after they had two players sin-binned for professional fouls.

But Swansea hit peak European form at the start of the second half when they blew the Italians apart with four tries in the space of eight minutes, one of those completing Morgan's hat-trick.

Man-of-the-Match Paul Moriarty, who was later cited by the Italians for an alleged punch in the first half, continued Swansea's try spree after they had taken their foot off the gas.

And wing Matthew Robinson got in on the action with two tries in the space of three minutes, both set up for him by Henson.

The final score of an eight-try half for Swansea came through Mark Taylor who had replaced Scott Gibbs - going off with a slight hamstring pull in the first half.

Swansea are now the only team to have surpassed 200 points in the Heineken Cup, helped by an impressive try count of 26 in four games - 21 of those against L'Aquila.

With the Heineken Cup going into hibernation, Swansea will now concentrate their efforts on the Welsh-Scottish League, which resumes next Saturday with a mouth-watering clash with Wales' other in-form European team Cardiff at St Helens.

After the game, Swansea coach John Plumtree said he would have settled for 70 points at the start of the day.

"The attitude of the players was really professional," he said.

He was also happy that all the Welsh sides were doing well in Europe, describing it as "great for Welsh rugby."

Speaking before he had heard of the Moriarty citing, Plumtree remained critical of the earlier charges brought against his team by Stade Francais:

"The whole day (against Stade) was pretty pathetic really, and it carried on afterwards," he said.

Teams

Scorers - Swansea: Tries: K Morgan 3, G Henson 2, M Robinson 2, C Rees, P Moriarty, H Jenkins, M Taylor 2. Cons: Henson 4, Rees. Pen: Rees

L'Aquila: Pen: Connolly

Swansea: K Morgan, G Henson, S Winn, S Gibbs (capt), M Robinson, C Rees, R Jones, C Anthony, C Wells, B Evans, T Maullin, J Griffiths, P Moriarty, H Jenkins, D Thomas
Replacements: S Martens, R Rees, M Taylor, D Morris, K Allen, L Jones, G Lewis

L'Aquila: T Handley, P Rotilio, F Napoli, J Connolly, G Rossi, A Masi, J Grasso, Van der Esch, M Alfonsetti, P Boshoff, M Privitera, A Farley, E Vaggi, F Angeloni, M Zaffiri (capt)
Replacements: Hostie, Clementini, Perugini, Comperti, Galgani, Cicino

Referee: J-C Gastou (France)

Att: 2,000