Bath reach last eight of Heineken Cup after tricky test with Toulouse

Bath 3 Toulouse 3: Bath's Heineken Cup pool campaign ended in anti-climax as neither they nor Toulouse were able to book a home quarter-final tie.

Instead the sides played out the lowest-scoring game in Heineken Cup history in terrible conditions at the Recreation Ground.

A pre-match hailstorm did nothing to improve the playing surface, while heavy rain fell for much for much of the game as Bath were let off the hook by Jean-Baptiste Elissalde's poor goal-kicking display.

The fly-half landed just one of his six penalty attempts as the much-hyped winner-takes-all Pool Five finale failed to live up to its billing.

Victory would have given Bath a home match against Leinster in the last eight, but they must now travel to Leicester in a repeat of the 2006 quarter-final, which they won 15-12 at the Walkers Stadium.

After being reprieved by Elissalde's profligacy, Bath looked as though they might win the match in the closing stages. They kept the ball for 19 phases, but opted against setting up Butch James for a drop-goal attempt and were eventually penalised on the floor.

Bath head coach Steve Meehan said: "Did you see the conditions? It was pretty tough to take the drop goal under those. There was never a period there where Butch was in a position to have a crack at it.

"Yes, he wasn't far from the goalposts, but it would have been like dropping it into a bath-tub of water and asking him to kick it out of that. We've got to be realistic about it.

"What we were trying to do was maintain possession, and we thought that if we could work slowly away from the base then we could force a penalty. The penalty came, but it was against us."

The home players still celebrated on the final whistle, even though they now face arguably a much sterner challenge in the knockout stages than they would have had victory been secured.

But despite the low-key ending to a hotly-contested pool, Meehan was delighted with his players' efforts.

They were under pressure in the tight during the first half and spent much of their time defending deep in their own territory. But the half-time introduction of prop David Flatman appeared to galvanise their forwards and Bath were the better team after the break.

Neither side looked especially like crossing the whitewash, but the better chances in the match – and the term is used loosely – fell to Bath, whose patient phase-building twice almost brought them a try.

They had taken the lead in the third minute when James landed a penalty after Toulouse killed the ball, but then suffered a significant blow when captain Michael Lipman went off on 17 minutes after appearing to be concussed.

The England flanker, who is due to spend the week training with the national team in Portugal, was lying face down on the sodden Rec pitch after a midfield collision and needed oxygen before declining a trip on a stretcher and walking gingerly to the changing rooms.

Elissalde had already missed one penalty by the time Lipman went off, but soon found his range to bring Toulouse level when Bath were penalised as they defended ferociously on their own line.

The fly-half then failed with three successive penalty attempts before the break – and another midway through the second period – as he wasted a potential 15 points.

His final miss came after James was off-target with a 45-metre penalty and the same player had been penalised for entering a ruck from the side as Bath built decent pressure in the Toulouse 22.

The conditions reduced the contest to a kicking lottery, denying the spectators the opportunity to see two of the best attacking rugby teams in Europe in full flow.

There was almost time for Bath to snatch a dramatic late win – and they kept hold of the wet ball magnificently but were unable to deliver the killer blow as Toulouse's brave defence held firm and forced a penalty in the dying seconds.

"To play six matches and have four wins, a draw and a narrow loss to Toulouse means we have delivered pretty well throughout the course of the tournament," said Meehan.

"We haven't played anywhere near the standard we hit against Toulouse in the first match, but if we can get back toward that sort of form then we will see how much further we can go.

" I believe in these players."

Bath: N Abendanon; J Maddock, A Crockett, S Berne, M Banahan; B James, M Claassens; D Barnes (D Flatman 41), L Mears (P Dixon 67), D Bell, J Harrison, S Hooper, A Beattie, M Lipman (capt; J Scaysbrook 17), D Browne (J Fa'amatuainu 72). Reps not used: A Jarvis, S Bemand, S Hape.

Scorers: Pen – James.

Toulouse: C Poitrenaud (V Clerc 73); M Medard, F Fritz (M Ahotaeiloa 39), Y Jauzion, C Heymans; J-B Elissalde (G du Toit 64), B Kelleher; D Human, W Servat (A Vernet Basualdo 67), B Lecouls (S Perugini 72), F Pelous (G Lamboley 72), P Albacete, J Bouilhou (capt; Y Nyanga 52), T Dusautoir, S Sowerby.

Scorers: Pen – Elissalde.

Referee: A Rolland (Ireland). Att: 10,600.