BIARRITZ 42, GLOUCESTER 15

GLOUCESTER were spanked by a hat-trick from Biarritz flyer Takudzwa Ngwenya.

The United States wing left the English club's defence in shreds after he scorched over for a sensational treble.

And further tries by Ayoola Erinle and Valentin Courrent piled on a record defeat for the Cherry and Whites in the Heineken Cup.

It is four years since they conceded 39 at Stade Francais, but a powder-puff defence in midfield allowed the Basques to run riot with five tries.

Coach Bryan Redpath rapped: "Ultimately, we shot ourselves in the foot by making so many basic errors. Three of their tries came from two missed tackles and one dropped pass. You just can't compete against a team of the calibre of Biarritz when you give away soft tries like that.

"We were suitably punished and we have to accept that we weren't good enough."

Nick Robinson kept Gloucester in touch early on at 6-3, but Andy Hazell was sin-binned to hand Biarritz a third penalty - and the game turned with it.

Zimbabwe-born Ngwenya became an overnight sensation during the 2007 World Cup when he skinned Springboks star Bryan Habana to score one of the tries of the tournament in France.

And he was just as red-hot as he tore Gloucester apart with a fantastic treble in the space of 16 minutes either side of half-time.

Ngwenya scorched past James Simpson-Daniel and Tom Voyce for his first before chipping over Lesley Vainikolo for a crucial second just before half-time.

And it did not take long for him to complete the first hat-trick of this year's Heineken Cup - beating Leicester's Scott Hamilton to the honours by 25 minutes.

Marcelo Bosch pounced after Charlie Sharples coughed up the ball and the full-back released the flying wing for a clear sprint that he was never going to lose.

Redpath said: "It's a real pity because the forwards worked very hard and there were still a lot of good things from the game.

"We created enough opportunities to put some pressure on them but we failed to make them count by making more individual errors."

Voyce and Jake Boer both barged over from close range either side of Erinle's powerful effort - during which he ran over Voyce - before Courrent completed the five-try rout late on.

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