Bristol winger Brendon Daniel scored a brace of tries as the Shoguns kept alive their slim Heineken Cup hopes with a gutsy eight-point victory at the Parc des Sports Marcel-Michelin on Sunday.

Bristol must now beat Irish heavyweights Leinster next weekend and hope that will prove enough to progress to the quarter-finals as one of the two best runners-up.

The Shoguns stunned Montferrand in the third minute today when the pacey Daniel was given too much space out wide, and Argentinian fly-half Felipe Contepomi's conversion gave the visitors a 7-0 lead before many spectators had found their seats.

The ground was coated with a light dusting of snow, which did not help the handling, and it was not until the half-hour mark before the favourites hit back, but they hit back hard.

Montferrand drove into the Shoguns' 22, before centre Xavier Sadourny sent out a long, looping pass to Elvis Vermeulen who had spotted an overlap on the wing.

The big back-rower used his strength to score in the corner and Sebastien Viars slotted a superb conversion to level the scores.

Just before the break, home lock Lyonel Vaitanaki took advantage of his side's dominance up front and drove over the line after a series of forward phases.

Viars added the extras and was back in the play almost from the kick-off. He made a great break up the middle before linking with replacement lock Eric Lecomte who galloped over for a try in the last play of the half.

Contepomi kept his side in the match with penalty goals at regular intervals, and Daniel cancelled out a Sadourny dropped goal with his second try in the 67th minute as the Shoguns took a shock lead.

Some nice build-up work from scrum-half Agustin Pichot and man of the match, lock Alex Brown, led to a break by former All Black centre Daryl Gibson, and he popped the ball to Daniel for the crucial score. Contepomi's conversion gave his side a 23-22 lead.

Viars missed an injury-time penalty-goal attempt, and replacement full-back Jamie Williams confirmed the Shoguns' victory with an intercept try as Montferrand threw everything at the visitors.