Toulouse, the three-times European champions, secured their passage to the semi-finals with a comprehensive victory over Cardiff Blues.

The game was barely a minute old when Toulouse struck first, through Maxime Médard. The 21-year-old wing turned an attempted grubber by Tom Shanklin, the Cardiff centre, into a present, then raced away to score under the posts. However, it was three second-half tries that finally killed off the visiting team.

“We were in it for 60 minutes,” Dai Young, the Blues coach, said, “but who's going to bet against them now?”

Cardiff competed for much of the first half and hit back with a try of their own in the seventeenth minute through Jason Spice and turned around just six points down. The margin could have been smaller had they seized on a moment of Toulouse madness when Cédric Heymans attempted a quick throw, deep in his own 22, that was intercepted by Jamie Roberts.

However, Toulouse do not have the best record in Europe for nothing. Tries from Maleli Kunavore, Vincent Clerc and Jean Bouilhou, the replacement back-row forward, finished Cardiff's hopes in the last 19 minutes, with only Ben Blair getting one back.

Toulouse now play London Irish at Twickenham in three weeks, a semi-final for which ERC will find difficulty in selling 80,000 tickets. It must hope that the punters take more notice of Toulouse's final 20 minutes yesterday than the faltering and error-strewn 60 that went before.

Scorers: Toulouse: Tries: Médard (1min), Kunavore (61), Clerc (70), Bouilhou (78). Conversions: Elissalde 3. Penalty goals: Elissalde 3 (10, 22, 59,) Dropped goals: Elissalde (29), Heymans (80). Cardiff Blues: Tries: Spice (17), Blair (67). Conversions: Blair 2 (17, 67). Penalty goal: Blair (27).

Scoring sequence (Toulouse first): 7-0, 10-0, 10-7, 13-7, 13-10, 16-10 (half-time), 19-10, 24-10, 26-10, 26-17, 33-17, 41-17.

Toulouse: C Heymans (sin-bin, 27-37); V Clerc, M Kunavore (rep: M Ahotaeiloa, 72), Y Jauzion, M Médard; J-B Elissalde (rep: V Courrent, 73), B Kelleher; D Human, W Servat (rep: V Basualdo, 65), S Perugini (rep: J-B Poux, 41), F Pelous (rep: R Millo-Chluski, 63), P Albacete, Y Nyanga (rep: J Bouilhou, 57), T Dusautoir, S Sowerby (rep: G Lamboley, 68).

Cardiff Blues: B Blair; J Roberts, T Shanklin (J Robinson 60), G Thomas, T James; D Flanagan (rep: N Robinson, 60), J Spice (sin-bin, 31-41); G Jenkins (rep: J Yapp, 41), G Williams (rep: R Thomas 63), T Filise, D Jones, P Tito (rep: S Morgan, 52), M Molitika, M Williams, X Rush.

Referee: W Barnes (England)

Attendance: 35,070