Leicester coach Bob Dwyer was furious at his side's poor performance as the Tigers scraped a 26-10 win over Cup minnows Milan at Welford Road. Will Greenwood scored two first-half tries and Joel Stransky kicked 11 points, but their scoring feats failed to save last year's beaten finalists from Dwyer's ire.

"On today's display we haven't got a hope in hell of winning our next match against Leinster," he said. "It was a very ordinary display and very disappointing."

Cardiff continued their losing sequence in France, but only went down by a point as they were beaten 26-25 by Bourgoin.

A controversial try by Richard Butland earned Bath victory on their return to Pontypridd, as they won 21-15 to avenge their defeat last year.

Butland followed up a chip ahead by Mike Catt to reach the ball first. But angry Ponty fans, backed up by television evidence, claimed the Bath stand-off touched the ball down when it was on the line in the dead ball area.

Sebastien Viars scored a hat-trick of tries for Cup holders Brive as they beat Scottish Borders 56-18 in France. The Scots managed three tries of their own but Brive were never in any danger of an upset in front of 8,000 of their home fans.

Wasps captain Lawrence Dallaglio was a relieved man after the English champions won 31-25 in Swansea. Irish centre Rob Henderson scored two tries, but it needed a dramatic 78th minute touchdown from Scotland wing Kenny Logan before Wasps could breathe easily.

Llanelli escaped from Perth's McDiarmid Park with a narrow 23-18 victory after surviving a second-half onslaught from Caledonia Reds.