By Sean Davies BBC Sport at Cardiff Arms Park

The scoreboards read 'Cardiff Blues 3-21 USA Perpignan' and it was a triumph for the Welsh side.

Report: Blues 3-21 Perpignan

You see, for the last 10 years the dilapidated digital points counters at either end of the Arms Park have given up the ghost, leaving baffled spectators to ponder the meaning of 'Ca d[ff 1�-33 �bb� �ale', or some similar wisdom.

It was a sorry reflection of the state of a side who once touted themselves as the 'greatest rugby club in the world', but the decline was mirrored in the on-field form of Cardiff and then the Blues in the professional era.

Cardiff were runners-up in the inaugural Heineken Cup in 1996, and until 1999 every team to claim the trophy had needed to overcome the Arms Park side in the knockout stages.

They reached the quarter-finals every year they competed until 2001, but since then have failed to get out of their group.

Indeed, in the last two years the Blues have only qualified for the competition by default, profiting from the demise of the Celtic Warriors in 2004/5 and getting in via the cat-flap of a play-off in Italy this season.

CARDIFF IN THE HEINEKEN CUP 1995/6: Runners up 1996/7: Semi-final 1997/8: Quarter-final 1998/9: Rebel year 1999/2000: Quarter-final 2000/1: Quarter-final 2001/2: Group stages 2002/3: Group stages 2003/4: Group stages 2004/5: Group stages Heineken Cup archive

But everything was supposed to change on Saturday. As the spanking new scoreboards proudly listed a team sheet including the great Jonah Lomu on the left wing, a packed crowd bathed in the cool winter sunshine and awaited a rugby treat.

Coach Dai Young and captain Rhys Williams had talked of the Blues' rejuvenation in the build-up, and a win over notorious hodophobics Perpignan would all-but see the Cardiff side into the quarter-finals.

But hardly had the teams taken the pitch than the revival was shown to have as much substance as the rumours linking Tana Umaga with a move to Cardiff last week.

Perpignan were solid but far from spectacular and seemed vulnerable to a Blues onslaught, but the home side never delivered a stirring challenge.

Outmuscled and out-thought at the breakdown, when they did win the ball their tactical kicking - without the injured Nicky Robinson at the helm - was little short of embarrassing.

The Blues' efforts to break Perpignan were laboured and vain

With a home tie against Calvisano to come, Perpignan have pool two sewn up, while the Blues must seek an away win at Leeds and hope other results go their way for a best runners-up spot.

They are such a Jekyll & Hyde side that a win at the Tykes is not beyond them, although Mr Hyde seems by far the dominant character when they play away from home.

Rhys Williams has claimed that his side's situation mirrors that of Wales last season, when they needed the one big win over England before gaining the confidence to become championship material.

But the Blues seem far from a team capable of winning a Heineken Cup quarter-final away from home, and it appears that Wales will have to brood on another season of European disappointment for all their under-performing regions.

The shiny new Arms Park scoreboards left little room for doubt on that point.