CARDIFF made easy work of the Italian champions as they swaggered to their biggest Heineken Cup win in the sunshine in Calvisano, helping themselves to eight tries.

It was a message of intent to Pool Six rivals Gloucester and Biarritz, though the gulf in class demonstrated that this is already a three-way fight for qualification with Calvisano, the perennial strugglers in Europe, yet to close the gap.

Two years ago Cardiff Blues arrived at this rugby outpost and handed Jonah Lomu, rugby’s first true megastar, a debut in front of what remains a record crowd at this venue.

Yesterday there was little need for such grandeur as the Welsh region avoided this potential banana skin with a performance that will feed belief within the squad before facing Gloucester next Sunday.

That full-blooded Anglo-Welsh clash at the Millennium Stadium is sure to be a far more intense affair than this lop-sided tie, but Cardiff would be happy to produce similar quality. Calvisano made them look good with some calamitous defence gifting away points, but the Blues played with a resilience and fluidity that at times was a joy to watch.

Maama Molitika and a penalty try saw Cardiff edge into an 18-13 lead after a tetchy first half that also saw them twice reduced to 14 men with Deiniol Jones and Jamie Robinson shown yellow cards for dangerous tackles.

After the break Gethin Jenkins and Tom Shanklin marked their return to the team with a devastating defensive display that will have been noted by Wales coach Warren Gatland.

Martyn Williams, the Wales and Lions veteran, shows no sign of letting up, constantly providing a link between forwards and backs, while Nicky Robinson, now under real pressure for his jersey from Ceri Sweeney, responded with a commanding display at outside-half that earned him the man-of-the-match award. The result was six tries, for Jason Spice, Shanklin, Ben Blair, Nicky Robinson, Leigh Halfpenny and Gareth Thomas.

The scale of the win will have been noted elsewhere. Cardiff surprised many last season with a lease of life in Europe that came out of the blue and caught their pool opponents off guard, allowing progress to the knockout stage for the first time in seven years under Dai Young. The former Wales prop emerged as a summer target for Leicester to succeed Marcelo Loffreda, and spent this week again dismissing speculation he will leave the Arms Park at the end of the season.

Young insists he will stay to “finish the job” with the Blues, but that looks a distinctly harder prospect this season with few likely to give them as much leeway in this year’s campaign. Gloucester and Biarritz will not be so careless.

Calvisano had won only twice in the Heineken Cup, and not since 2003, and there appeared little reason to think they might improve that record when Molitika galloped through in the fifth minute. Shanklin and Jenkins had squandered half-chances in the opening exchanges before the durable Tongan provided the finishing thrust.

There was little secret or subtlety to Calvisano’s gameplan, with the usual collection of seasoned overseas campaigners and former Italy internationals offering hope of parity up front.