A brace for former Bath wing Iain Balshaw helped Biarritz Olympique finish top of Pool 4 with a bonus-point win over Bath in the South of France.

From the outset last season’s Heineken Cup finalists forced Bath to defend for long periods of the game, using their attacking power upfront and out wide to cause the visitors problems all afternoon.

Influencial scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili opened the scoring, charging down Olly Barkley’s clearance and gliding into score under the posts, he then added the simple conversion.

England wing Balshaw then came back to haunt his former club, linking up with Dane Haylett-Petty to create room down the flank before out sprinting the defence to score. Yachvili slotted over the conversion which took his side into a well deserved 14 – 0 lead at the break.

The hosts started the second period in the same vain they left the first and Balshaw grabbed his second try just two minutes in. Bath captain Luke Watson looked to have intercepted a short pass but the ball rebounded in to the arms of Balshaw who had an easy run into score.

Bath finally found some composure and when they began to string the phases together caused problems for Biarritz. Stuart Hooper powered his way over for a well deserved score.

As Bath tried to build on the try and eat into the lead Biarritz struck back through American flyer Takudzwa Ngwenya who crossed for the bonus point try.

Tom Biggs touched down for a late double for the visitors but it wasn’t enough and too late in the day and Biarritz progress through to the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup.