Scarlets put to the sword by rampant Perpignan

Llanelli's Heineken Cup dreams were shattered by a five-try onslaught from one of the French Championship section leaders. Now the Scarlets have to regroup and try to beat the reigning champions Leicester at a sold-out Stradey Park next weekend to stand any chance of reaching the knock-out stages.

With no chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals, many thought Perpignan were going to give up the game and concentrate on their French Championship campaign. How wrong they were.

Not perturbed by falling behind to a dream start for the Scarlets, when Stephen Jones dropped a goal inside the first minute, they turned on the power up front, and the pace behind, to run in three tries in the first half to put a huge dent in the Welsh side's Heineken Cup hopes.

Llanelli knew they had to make it three wins in a row on French soil in Europe to stand any chance of reaching the quarter-finals. It did not help their cause that a flu virus forced them to start without Salesi Finau and Wayne Proctor.

Two forward passes may have helped Perpignan create their first try for Robbie MacDonald on a four-to-one overlap, but there was nothing Llanelli could do to stop the scrum-half, Ludovic Lousau, racing 30 metres for his score or the dancing wing Farid Sid dancing away for a third on the stroke of half-time.

Perpignan's captain Bernard Goutta was sent to the sin-bin for not retreating 10 metres after 53 metres, but Llanelli were unable to take advantage and by the time he returned the home lead had been advanced by a third Lacroix penalty. The coup de grâce was delivered by Benoit Bellot with a fourth try after Vernon Cooper had been sin-binned one minute after coming on, and then a fifth try from Olivier Olibeau merely added to Llanelli's misery.

Perpignan: Tries: R MacDonald, L Loustau, F Sid, B Bellot, O Olibeau; Conversions: T Lacroix 2, B Bellot 2; Penalties: T Lacroix 3.

Llanelli: Try: S Quinnell; Conversion: S Jones; Drop goal: S Jones.

Perpignan: F Cermeno; F Sid, J Orengo, N Couttet, R MacDonald (J Gillighan, 60); T Lacroix (B Bellot, 68), L Loustau (J Basset, 68); P Meya (S de Bescombes, 57), M Konieckiewicz (M Dal Maso, 57), J Garcia, R Alvarez-Kairelis, J Daniell (O Olibeau 60), G le Corvec (R Jechoux, 60), B Goutta (capt), P Murphy.

Llanelli: B Davies; M Jones (G Bowen, 47), N Boobyer, L Davies, G Evans; S Jones (capt), D Peel (G Easterby, 69); M Madden (P Booth, 69), R McBryde (M Thomas, 69), J Davies, L Gross (V Cooper, 69), C Wyatt, S Easterby, D Jones (S Quinnell, 41), D Hodges.

Referee: D McHugh (Ireland).