Those wondering if Wasps' hunger for trophies remains as intense as it was last season had their answer in High Wycombe yesterday. As soothing aperitifs go, this was an ideal start to the champions' defence of their hard-won Heineken Cup title and the significance of the result will not be lost on their pool rivals.
There is still an awful long way to go, of course, before Wasps can start seriously contemplating the prospect of ruling Europe for a second straight year but they are clearly in no mood to be dethroned by wealthier raiders from across the Channel. As for Leicester, the other heavyweight contenders in this devilishly hard group, a significant marker has been thrown down.
It was not so much the consistency of Wasps' skill levels that will impress as the desire and attitude underpinning the whole effort. When previously unconsidered tacklers like Alex King send opponents staggering backwards and someone like Matt Dawson plays as if he has been a Wasp all his life instead of a few weeks, it is clear they represent a club which refuses to rest on its laurels.
"Slowly but surely we're coming to the boil," said their captain Lawrence Dallaglio.
In a pool of impossibly slender margins there was also the bonus of keeping the French tryless, which may prove useful when the qualification maths are being pored over in the new year.
If it helped that Biarritz, for reasons best known to themselves, displayed a baffling lack of ambition for lengthy periods, the Wasps director of rugby Warren Gatland felt his team had victory in the bag before the hour mark.
Considering they did not take the lead until the 54th minute when a King drop-goal put them 15-12 up, that may sound fanciful. But Biarritz, bar a couple of first-half glimpses of genuine class, appeared to have concluded already that the tide was against them.
When the Irish referee Alan Lewis harshly sin-binned an outraged Serge Betsen at a ruck, having just awarded Wasps an even more debatable penalty against the Romanian prop Petru Balan for not releasing, their desire to get back home as swiftly as possible was almost tangible.
It is an unsatisfactory fact of European life that referees, more often than not, seem to favour host teams.
The visitors here were also aggrieved to be called back for crossing in midfield when their international wing Jimmy Marlu looked set to outstrip the cover down the left. Ultimately, though, Wasps tightened their game up impressively after an overeager start and the Biarritz coach Patrice Lagisquet declined to blame the official for his side's defeat.
Wasps, in fact, might have pulled away earlier had the video referee not spotted Tom Voyce's foot grazing the touchline as the England wing stretched for the left corner inside four minutes. In the end they scored only one legitimate try, by Joe Worsley while Biarritz were reduced to 14 men in Betsen's absence, but two drop-goals from the admirable King and four penalties from the steady Mark van Gisbergen ensured the French were denied a losing bonus point.
Afterwards Gatland and his assistant Shaun Edwards were particularly full of praise for King's organisational skills, Edwards going so far as to mention his fly-half's name in the same sentence as Napoleon.
Dawson also had his best game since arriving from Northampton and Gatland believes, once he reviews the tape, that England's coach Andy Robinson might reconsider his decision to omit Dawson from his squad for the autumn internationals. Gatland was also glad to welcome back his prop Craig Dowd.
Biarritz, for their part, will have to reappraise their game plan ahead of this weekend's visit of Leicester to south-west France. They have always been a more expressive side at home, where Wasps lost heavily in a pre-season friendly, but a side containing 11 internationals should not have placed nearly so much emphasis on the boot.
The upshot was a game which did not consistently match the spectacular autumn colours in the sloping woods overlooking the ground. A French partridge even went for a stroll in the Wasps 22 at one stage but Biarritz had been put to flight long before Dimitri Yachvili departed to the sin-bin in the 75th minute for a stamp on Phil Greening.
Wasps : Van Gisbergen; Lewsey, Richards (Waters, 80), Erinle, Voyce; King (Brooks, 80), Dawson; Payne, Greening, Green (Dowd, 46), Hart, Birkett, Worsley, O'Connor, Dallaglio.
Try : Worsley. Con : Van Gisbergen. Pens : Van Gisbergen 4. Drop-goals : King 2.
Biarritz : Brusque; Bidabe, Arramburu, Traille, Marlu; Peyrelongue, Yachvili; Balan, August, Avril, Thion, Booyse, Betsen, Malonga (Milheres, 58), Harinordoquy.
Pens : Yachvili 3. Drop-goal : Traille.
Sin-bin : Betsen, Yachvili.
Referee : A Lewis (Ireland). Attendance : 8,737.
