Opening try: Jean-Marcellin Buttin
Perpignan were given a hiding for the second consecutive week on Friday, going down 39-3 at home to high-flying Clermont.
After being hammered 38-0 in Toulon last week, Perpignan had hoped for better on their return to Stade Aimé Giral but were totally outplayed as their sterile attack was exposed once again. The Catalans have failed to score a try in three games.
More importantly, USAP's fragile defence was torn apart as the hosts missed far too many tackles against the rampant 2010 champions.
Clermont ran in five unanswered tries in a convincing win, their seventh in eight games.
The bonus-point win takes Clermont provisionally back to the top of the standings, four points clear of Castres, who face Montpellier on Saturday.
The visitors led 22-3 at half time thanks to tries from young full-back Jean-Marcellin Buttin, Scotland lock Nathan Hines and Fijian wing Kini Murimurivalu.
Full-back Jérôme Porical's early penalty was the only reply the Catalans could muster.
There was more to come after the break as replacement loose forward Alexandre Lapandry scored with his first touch of the ball before wing Noa Nakaitaci cruised over in the final minute to add the icing to the Clermont cake.
The scorers
For Perpignan:
Pen: Porical
For Clermont:
Tries: Buttin, Hines, Murimurivalu, Lapandry, Nakaitaci
Cons: Skrela 3, James
Pens: Skrela 2
Yellow card: Bardy (Clermont - 7th min -repeated off-side)
Perpignan: 15 Jérôme Porical, 14 Adrien Planté, 13 Joffrey Michel, 12 Gavin Hume, 11 Julien Candelon, 10 Nicolas Laharrague, 9 Florian Cazenave, 8 Damien Chouly, 7 Jean-Pierre Perez, 6 Ovidiu Tonita, 5 Rimas Alvarez Kairelis, 4 Olivier Olibeau (captain), 3 Kisi Pulu, 2 Charles Geli, 1 Perry Freshwater.
Replacements: 16 Marius Tincu, 17 Jérôme Schuster, 18 Guillaume Vilaceca, 19 Henry Tuilagi, 20 Bertrand Guiry, 21 David Mélé, 22 Rudi Coetzee, 23 Benoît Bourrust.
Clermont: 15 Jean-Marcellin Buttin, 14 Kini Murimurivalu , 13 Regan King, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Noa Nakaitaci, 10 David Skrela, 9 Kevin Senio, 8 Elvis Vermeulen, 7 Julien Bardy, 6 Gerhard Vosloo, 5 Nathan Hines, 4 Jamie Cudmore, 3 Davit Zirakashvili, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Ti'i Paulo, 17 Lionel Faure, 18 Jason White, 19 Alexandre Lapandry, 20 Ludovic Radosavljevic, 21 Brock James, 22 Gavin Williams , 23 Danie Kotze.
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