POOL FIVE Toulouse 18 Bath 16: BATH WERE last night kicking themselves around Toulouse after throwing away victory over the three-times European champions.
A bonus point is something to take from the greatest of France's rugby cities, but Bath were within 30 seconds of making it a perfect weekend for England's Heineken Cup teams.
Instead, they went down to a stuttering side that had to rely on six David Skrela penalties to offset two Bath tries, the second two minutes from the final whistle. At that stage the game appeared finally to have swung Bath's way, as fullback Nick Abendanon bundled his way through three tackles to cross the line and ground the ball to the video referee's satisfaction.
However, with their coach, Steve Meehan, screaming into his microphone that Toulouse still had time, Bath were less than smart at the restart. They lost the ball when one of their own players' boots kicked it through the ruck and even though a Toulouse hand eventually knocked on with nothing remaining on the clock, George Clancy had spotted illegal defending. Skrela, from wide on the right, looked to have pulled his kick, but the combination of the wind and the France outhalf's unique kicking style helped spin the ball just inside the left upright.
Skrela pointed skyward as Bath heads dropped. Butch James, the last-minute offender, said: "We all thought we had done it, but you have to play for the final whistle. [ The referee] played a long advantage, but not too long. The guys had the ball [ in the ruck] and had it come out we would have had the game."
Ten years on from winning the Heineken Cup, Bath just about played the better rugby in a scrappy game. The two outhalves exchanged penalties before a golden chance fell Bath's way in the 22nd minute. Not for the first time Skrela was charged down, this time by Michael Lipman, but Matt Banahan, lurking alone out on the left, was either unseen or disregarded and the move fizzled out with the referee's whistle.
Toulouse replied with over-complication of their own. Yannick Jauzion stabbed the ball into the corner and Bath fumbled their lineout, but when the Toulouse pack tried to rumble forward they lost possession and finished up being driven 20 yards backward.
Toulouse's Guy Noves was unimpressed and used every inch of his technical area to say so, behaviour he repeated when Banahan flattened Maxime Medard and Fabien Pelous fumbled away some of the pressure Toulouse had built before Skrela hit his second penalty.
Three points may not have seemed much reward for 40 minutes of endeavour, but that was no excuse for the mess Bath got themselves into at the start of the second half - attempting a quick throw-in and an attack from under their own posts to gift Skrela his third penalty.
Bath then got the first try of the game. This time it was Byron Kelleher's turn to be charged down. New Zealand's World Cup scrumhalf was too slow getting the ball away on his own line, his kick ricocheting off James's arms and into the path of Bath's other South African halfback, Michael Claassens. James missed the conversion and his iffy day continued with an attempt at a drop-goal that veered off his right boot, barely getting halfway to the posts and inadvertently setting up a counterattack.
Toulouse moved further ahead thanks to an ugly-looking Skrela penalty that just had the legs to reach from halfway.
James redeemed himself three minutes later, landing a touchline penalty, but just when Bath were within touching distance Matt Stevens got himself isolated and hung on to the ball and Skrela landed his fifth penalty. Then Abendanon bruised his way home for what proved a short-lived lead.
• Guardian Service
TOULOUSE: Medard; Donguy, Kunavore, Jauzion, Heymans; Skrela, Kelleher; Poux, Servat, Lecouls; Pelous, Albacete; Bouihlou, Dusautoir, Sowerby. Replacements: Human for Poux (50 mins), Millo-Chluski for Pelous (60 mins), Nyanga for Bouihlou (65 mins).
BATH: Abendanon; Maddock, Crockett, Berne, Banahan; James, Claassens; Flatman, Mears, Stevens; Harrison, Short; Hooper, Lipman, Faamatuainu. Replacements: Barnes for Flatman (41 mins), Stephenson for Banahan (60 mins), Dixon for Mears (71 mins), Scaysbrook for Hooper (73 mins), Bell for Stevens (74 mins), Cheeseman for Berne (76 mins).
Referee: George Clancy(IRFU).
