London Irish's unexpected march through Heineken Cup Pool 1 came to a shuddering halt yesterday at Perpignan's Catalan fortress.
The Exiles cling to a one-point lead over their French rivals in their pool despite this defeat, but they will be looking for 10 points from their remaining games against Benetton Treviso and Newport Gwent Dragons to secure a quarter-final berth. Any fewer, and Perpignan would be odds-on to finish ahead of the Madejski stadium side after the final round of pool games are played in late January.
World Cup-winning full-back Percy Montgomery made an earlier-than-ex-pected debut for the Catalan side, but his troublesome knee injury meant he handed the goalkicking duties to fly-half Cedric Rosalen.
As well as watching their new blond Springbok star, Perpignan