With their own Springbok fly-half Butch James rested, the Guinness Premiership leaders lost out to the tactical skills and goal-kicking of South African Derrick Hougaard who marked his debut with 14 points.

Meehan said: "I would rather go down playing rugby rather than relying on kicking and penalties. The players' attitude was to attack and I'm not going to berate them for that.

"It's all about their development and maturity and learning to execute skills under pressure. We learnt a lot about our players today."

Meehan's attention is quickly turning to next weekend's opening fixtures in the Heineken Cup and their mouth-watering trip to Toulouse.

He said: "It will be a marvellous occasion. I don't know how many of them have experienced Toulouse - there will be drums, horns and trumpets and red and black everywhere. It's a great rugby town."

As assistant coach at Stade Francais, Meehan was only once on the winning side on a trip to Toulouse but he said: "We are getting progressively better and better. Toulouse always give you an opportunity to play - we could end up with a cracking game."

Leicester head coach Heyneke Meyer claimed he was under no illusion about how difficult it was to win at Bath and paid tribute to the contribution of Hougaard.

"It's great to have a guy who is used to playing tactically and we used our chances better in the game," he said.

"You need very good number 10 in these competitions and Derrick is a good tactical player who can turn a game around. He will be one of the best players in the Premiership especially as he learns to play in different conditions. He's got a lot to offer."

Hougaard said: "The game didn't start very well for me but I got into the groove. I didn't panic, just tried to keep myself focused. With a slight lead and wind advantage for the second half we knew we were in a good position."

It was Hougaard's 70th-minute drop goal that finally put the game out of Bath's reach but he confessed that he thought there was even less time left when the kick went over.

"Actually, I was looking at the wrong clock and I thought there was only couple of minutes left," he admitted.