Gloucester Rugby will travel to Montpellier in the last 16 knockout round of the EPCR Challenge Cup after Sunday’s 55-17 defeat away at Bayonne meant the Premiership side would draw one of the top seeds in the competition.

The trip in April will be the Cherry and Whites’ third hop across the channel this season having lost to Vannes and more recently Bayonne on their travels in the group stage. Home wins against Edinburgh and Scarlets were enough to book Gloucester’s spot in the knockout stages and allowed director of rugby George Skivington to rest his first-teamers for the trip to the atmospheric Stade Jean-Dauger this weekend, making 14 changes from the side that started in the win against Scarlets a week earlier.

The English side got off to the best possible start on Sunday with George Barton sieving through a gap before releasing Charlie Chapman with an inside pass to race away and score as the two more familiar first-teamers combined after just three minutes on the clock. But that was as good as it got for Gloucester as Bayonne, who are flying high in the French Top 14 in fifth, ran in eight tries over the next 77 minutes with Baptiste Germain, Lucas Martin, Camille Lopez, Federico Mori, Facundo Bosch, Cheikh Tiberghien(2) and Giovanni Habel-Kuffner dotting down before Cam Jordan scored a consolation try for the under-strength visitors.

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The Cherry and White young guns were always on for a hiding to nothing but did their job to allow Skivington to keep his powder dry for Saturday's Gallagher Premiership clash at home to Leicester Tigers who were battered 80-12 away at Toulouse.

Skivington said: “We came here with a very inexperienced side. We knew we had to get off to a good start but that it would be a very hard day for a lot of 18 or 19-year-olds. A lot of lads will learn a lot of lessons from today.

We knew we had probably qualified when we selected the team we did and gave a lot of opportunities to some young guys, some of them haven’t even played in the Premiership yet let alone Europe. It was always a big ask for them and disappointing to lose in the way we did.

“We go into the knockout stages now and we will rip into that but it all depends on our schedule in the Premiership. If the schedule lines up then we will be having a full crack.”

Full draw for the Round of 16

R16 1: Connacht Rugby (1) v Cardiff Rugby (16)
R16 2: Montpellier Hérault Rugby (2) v Gloucester Rugby (15)
R16 3: Edinburgh Rugby (3) v Emirates Lions (14)
R16 4: Ospreys (4) v Scarlets (13)
R16 5: Lyon Olympique Universitaire (5) v Hollywoodbets Sharks (12)
R16 6: Aviron Bayonnais (6) v Vodacom Bulls (11)
R16 7: Section Paloise (7) v Bath Rugby (10)
R16 8: USAP (8) v Racing 92 (9)
NB The clubs ranked numbers 1 to 8 will have home venue advantage.

Bayonne : 15. Tom Spring, 14. Nadir Megdoud, 13. Guillaume Martocq, 12. Federico Mori, 11. Arnaud Erbinartegaray, 10. Camille Lopez (c), 9. Baptiste Germain, 1. Martin Villar, 2. Lucas Martin, 3. Pieter Scholtz, 4. Denis Marchois, 5. Lucas Paulos, 6. Noa Traversier, 7. Baptiste Heguy, 8. Uzair Cassiem

Replacements : 16. Facundo Bosch, 17. Swan Cormenier, 18. Pascal Cotet, 19. Alex Moon, 20. Giovanni Habel-Kuffner, 21. Guillaume Rouet, 22. Joris Segonds, 23. Cheikh Tiberghien

Gloucester Rugby : 15. George Barton, 14. Louis Hillman-Cooper, 13. Will Butler, 12. Max Knight, 11. Jacob Morris, 10. Charlie Atkinson, 9. Charlie Chapman, 1. Jamal Ford-Robinson, 2. Morgan Nelson, 3. Alfie Petch, 4. Freddie Clarke, 5. Cameron Jordan, 6. Danny Eite, 7. Harry Taylor (c), 8. Albert Tuisue

Replacements: 16. Jack Singleton, 17. Archie McArthur, 18. Jono Benz-Salomon, 19. Deian Gwynne, 20. Caio James, 21. Caolan Englefield, 22. Rory Taylor, 23. Jack Cotgreave

Referee : Ben Breakspear (Wal)

Assistant referees : Ellis Poulden (Wal) and Mike English (Wal)

TMO : Tom Spurrier (Wal)