Butch James insists Bath will learn from their last-gasp 18-16 Heineken Cup defeat away to Toulouse today.

The Springbok fly-half's kicking problems continued in a hugely intense Pool 2 clash which saw six David Skrela penalties give Toulouse the narrow verdict, after Bath had outscored the French champions two tries to none.

Skrela completed the win with the last kick of the game after second-half tries from scrum-half Michael Claassens and full-back Nick Abendanon had Bath 16-15 up going into the last three minutes of a pulsating scrap.

"We all thought we'd done it when Nick Abendanon got the try. But we played for 89 minutes and 59 seconds and lost our concentration for one second - and it cost us the win," said James.

"Either side could have won the game. But we played a lot of rugby and if we'd won it, we would have deserved it," added James, who landed just two kicks - both penalties - out of five shots at goal, missing both conversion attempts.

"Our heads are down in the dressing room, and there's a mixture of anger and disappointment in there - disappointment that we didn't win and anger because we know we threw it away at the end.

But the bottom line is we're leaving here a better side for this experience. If we're in the same position again, we won't make the same mistake and we'll close the game out."

James survived clash under a high-ball with Toulouse's French international centre Yannick Jauzion when he looked set to score Bath's second try of the match before Abendanon struck late on. Jauzion escaped unpunished by Irish referee George Clancy - a decision which mystified Bath head coach Steve Meehan.

He said, "There were a few odd decisions out there, notably the one where Toulouse were given a defensive scrum in front of their own line after Butch James was taken out by Yannick Jauzion.

"He would have scored from that close in, and it might have affected the outcome. We'll have to have a close look at the incident later. I'm disappointed for the players because we came here to play good rugby and they delivered that, scoring two tries and keeping Toulouse from crossing our line.

"But it's never over until it's over, and mistakes like the one we made in the last seconds of a contest as close as that one cost a lot in a game where the margins are so tight."