CENTRE Ben Tapuai has warned his Bath teammates that another passive defensive performance in their European Challenge Cup quarter final could cost them a golden opportunity to put some silverware on the Rec mantlepiece this season.

The Aviva Premiership host French outfit Brive - the club they beat to lift the European Cup title in 1998 - in the last eight of the continent’s second-tier competition tomorrow (12.45pm).

Tapuai and co head into the knockout contest off the back of three successive domestic defeats, culminating in last Sunday’s 53-10 shellacking at the hands of Premiership champions Saracens, and the seven-times capped Australian international admits there are some serious lessons to heed from that humbling.

“We were pretty disappointed with the result (at Saracens) - it just wasn’t Bath,’’ he told the Wiltshire Times.

“They played their game very well, forced us into our plan B, which isn’t where we wanted to be. It forced us to kick instead of kicking on our own terms and they are pretty hard to stop when they get their big boys rolling.’’

Brive are currently mid-table in the French domestic Top 14 competition, but were 28-25 winners over third-placed Montpellier last weekend and Tapuai knows the home side cannot afford to let them get up a head of steam.

He added: “We had a big team meeting (on Tuesday), a debrief on what went wrong and now we’re looking to this week and we’ll go from there.

“We’ve done a bit of analysing (of Brive). They are very competitive in the Top 14 once they get their momentum and we cannot afford to be passive in defence.’’

The 28 year old former Queensland Reds back joined Bath in November of last year and admits the concept of European cup rugby is a refreshing challenge to get to grips with.

“It’s awesome to play in these different competitions and against different styles of play. It’s another mindset and I’m enjoying the challenge of that.’’