Harlequins overcame Montpellier 41-18 to kick off their Challenge Cup campaign in tremendous fashion at Twickenham Stoop.

In the first game of the European season, Quins fought back from a flurry of early penalties to take the win and earn a bonus point with six tries against the team led by Jake White, who has been heavily linked to the vacant head coach role with England.

The windy conditions saw Benoit Paillaugue miss his first penalty in the fourth minute but he soon found his range, exchanging a series of efforts from the tee with Nick Evans to put Montpellier 12-3 up after 25 minutes.

Luke Wallace scored his first Challenge Cup try after breaking away from a line-out drive into the corner, but Evans could not convert.

Montpellier's problems worsened when Mikheil Nariashvili was shown a yellow card and Quins took advantage, with Nick Easter powering over shortly before the break and Evans splitting the posts to give Quins a 15-12 lead at the interval.

A third try for Quins, this time from Jack Clifford, extended their advantage, but Paillaugue cut the deficit with another penalty.

Quins secured a bonus point when Danny Care drove over from a line-out, but Evans missed the conversion to leave the score at 27-15.

Paillaugue took his and his team's tally to 18 on the hour mark, but Ollie Lindsay-Hague widened the hosts' advantage when he leapt between the posts shortly after coming on as a replacement.

England captain Chris Robshaw then went over in the closing stages, ensuring Quins made an impressive start to their European campaign.