Perpignan - 37 Cardiff Blues - 14: Perpignan took control of Pool Five with an emphatic five-try victory over Cardiff Blues at Stade Aime Giral.
Christophe Manas, Nicolas Durand, Samueli Dawai Naulu, Gavin Hume and Ovidiu Tonita all went over as the French side took maximum points.
Jamie Robinson and Rhys Thomas managed to gain some respectability on the scoreboard for Cardiff who were trailing 37-0 with 15 minutes to go.
Cardiff had flown to the south of France with a degree of optimism given the opening round results in Pool Five last week. Cardiff had blasted past Leeds Tykes while Perpignan struggled to shake off Italians Calvisano.
But the Welsh region's preparations were dealt a severe late blow before the game when Martyn Williams returned home from France because of an illness in the family.
Cardiff had already lost British Lions Gethin Jenkins and Tom Shanklin as well as ex-All Black Xavier Rush through injury. But the promotion of Maama Molitika to the starting team left the Blues one short on the bench.
Added to this, Cardiff's remarkably poor record on the road in Europe - they had lost their last 14 games in the European Cup away from the Arms Park - and the optimism was looking hollow.
Yet it still took an moment of good fortune on 20 minutes for Perpignan to unlock the well-organised Cardiff defence. Leading 3-0 but finding space hard to come by, Perpignan outside-half Nicolas Laharrague lofted a speculative cross-field kick. Cardiff centre Robinson failed to deal with the problem and ended up with his head in his hands after the ball had bounced over his head and into the hands of the on-rushing Manas who went over from 35 metres out.
The French side sensed they were gaining the upper hand up front and looked to press home their advantage which they did ruthlessly.
PERPIGNAN: J. Laharrague, Dawai-Naulu, Marty, Grandclaude, Manas, N. Laharrague, Durand, Freshwater, Konieck, Mas, Gaston, Hines, Vaki, Goutta, Tonita. Replacements: Hume for Grandclaude (37), Pez for N. Laharrague (62), Dupuy for Freshwater (62), Tincu for Konieck (56), Porcu for Gaston (56), Robertson for Goutta (58). Not used: Debaty.
CARDIFF: R Williams, Czekaj, J Robinson, Stcherbina, Morgan, N Robinson, Phillips, Yapp, G Williams, M Jones, Quinnell, Sidoli, Sowden-Taylor, M Williams, A Powell. Replacements: R. Thomas for G Williams (59), Evans for M Jones (53), D Jones for Quinnell (73). Not used: Molitika, Schubert, R. Powell, L. Thomas.
Referee: Alan Lewis (Ireland).
