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First-half tries from Julien Arias, Sergio Parisse, Pascal Pape and Lionel Beauxis ensured the bonus point was secured before the half-hour mark in Paris.

Edinburgh hit back in the second period and gained a late consolation score through Ben Cairns. But the crushing loss was Edinburgh’s 17th in their last 18 away outings in the Heineken Cup and consigned last season’s victory at Castres to a distant memory.

Stade, who face the added pressure of being the host city for the 15th final next May, looked at ease as they flew out of the traps, but luck was on their side for the first try in the seventh minute.

Centre John Houston was turned over and, fortunately, right wing Arias picked up the scraps to launch a devastating counter-attack from inside his own half to beat Edinburgh fly-half Phil Godman on the outside and touch down with consummate ease.

Julien Dupuy, the scrum-half who returned to France in the summer from Leicester, added the extras and the hosts were up and running.

Stade were firmly into their stride two minutes later when they claimed their second score to stun the visitors.

Lock Tom Palmer won the line-out before fly-half Beauxis and Arias kept the move flowing to feed Italian number eight Sergio Parisse, who beat off the last-ditch tackle of Chris Paterson to crash over in the right corner.

Pape strolled through the challenge of Allan Jacobsen to add a third converted try by Dupuy for a comfortable 21-0 lead.

But the French outfit, who have never won Europe’s biggest prize, did not take their foot off the accelerator in a thrilling opening half of slick passing, flair and adventure.

The bonus point came in the 29th minute when Beauxis finished off another fine flowing move to seal the home side’s dominance and power to leave Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat with the daunting task of rallying his troops at the interval.

The visitors emerged for the second half with renowned vigour and aggression and competed well in their bid to halt the French rampage.

Stade head coach Jacques Delmas began to make sweeping changes with Dupuy, Antoine Burban and Sylvain Marconnet given the rest of the afternoon off.

With the number of changes, inevitably, the intensity dropped. Replacement scrum-half Noel Oelschig added a solitary penalty, but Edinburgh produced a spirited second-half display.

The away team were rewarded when Cairns combined with centre partner Nick de Luca to ensure Edinburgh were not whitewashed for only the fourth time in the Heineken Cup.

Then, in the final minute, Cairns nearly turned provider for Scott MacLeod but his right boot caught the touchline.

Edinburgh now must beat Ulster at home next weekend to get their campaign on track. Stade, who moved above the Irish side to top the pool, travel to Bath next Sunday.

I am not sure if I live in the same South Africa, but I watched live on Saturday the Springboks play England, followed by Wales v All Blacks followed by France v Australia, then on Sunday I watched recordings of the Scottish and Irish games. In the small town where I live, I know people who went to one of three bars that shows the Boks game on very large LCD TVs and all three were packed to the rafters with Bok supporters. On the beach in the morning I saw lots of people of all races wear Boks kit either T shirts or caps which is the norm for our town on the day the Boks play. Football maybe enjoyed by the masses and with the world cup coming up it maybe a good thing to tune the nation into it, I’ve never been a football fan but I am looking forward to seeing the world cup here in South Africa. However to say that rugby is being squeezed out I disagree, Rugby is very much alive and kicking where I am. By the way if you what Sky news from the UK you will also see that their sports news is almost exclusively football and in fact only mentioned rugby once on Sunday and that was to highlight the upcoming Ba Ba’s game. Its not just RSA that is football mad, the UK certainly is or at least Sky News is.