Newport Gwent Dragons suffered a heavy defeat in France as their Heineken Cup hopes took a severe dent at a rampant Biarritz.
The Gwent region crashed to their heaviest defeat in the competition, beating the 45-17 defeat to London Irish in 2007, after conceding six tries to the French giants at the Parc des Sports Aguilera.
Centre Tom Riley scored a second half consolation try for the visitors but the damage was already done as Biarritz put the Dragons to the sword in a thrilling first-half display.
Dragons head coach Paul Turner could only watch on as his men was out-classed, out-fought and out-muscled but ill-disciplined also compounded their woes.
Forwards Hugh Gustafson and Grant Webb were sin-binned in the first half as the Welsh side contributed to their own downfall.
And they could not afford to hand the numerical advantage to Biarritz who capitalised instantly with an 18th minute penalty try.
Further scores were to follow as group leaders Biarritz added tries from Dimitri Vachvili, Takudzwa Ngwenya, Valentin Courrent and a brace for ex-England wing Iain Balshaw as the gap widens to nine points in Pool Two.
The Dragons are level with Glasgow Warriors on five points but now must beat Biarritz at Rodney Parade next Friday to keep their slim qualification hopes of reaching the last eight alive.
