Munster were first on the scorecard when, after 5 minutes, Simon Zebo collected a Johne Murphy chip through leaving the winger to touch down in the corner. O’Gara missed the conversion however and Connacht were soon applying pressure of their own, Ian Keatley narrowly missing a penalty on the 10 minute mark when Alan Quinlan was penalised for not rolling away.~A breakout from their own half saw Munster make it as far as the Connacht 5m line but after repelling the attack several times scrumhalf Frank Murphy used his strength to wrestle the ball from Tómas O’Leary’s hands and set out at a blistering pace down the middle of the field. His grubber ahead for Gavin Duffy bounced the wrong way and into touch but the pressure was rewarded when just 3 minutes later Connacht were awarded another penalty, Alan Quinlan again the guilty party for not rolling away at the ruck. Keatley, who is bound for Munster next season, duly slotted the points and after a dominant scrum on the halfway line, with Connacht’s Brett Wilkinson, Sean Cronin and Jamie Hagan applying huge pressure to the Munster front row who buckled, he kicked a further 3 points to Connacht into the lead with 6 minutes left in the first half. It didn’t last long though as Alan Quinlan crashed over from a rolling maul and Ronan O’Gara converted in the last minute of the first half leaving the score at the break Munster 12 Connacht 6.

The second half was a scrappy affair with moments of brilliance, Sean Cronin looped around Ian Keatley to sprint down the wing, he was stopped 3m short of the line. 5 minutes later Gavin Duffy touched down, after a superb break from Troy Nathan sucked in the defence but the try was not awarded as the touch judge brought play back for an off the ball incident. Ronan O’Gara kicked a penalty and converted a Doug Howlett try with 5 minutes to go and Paul O’Connell was sin-binned for repeated infringements. It wasn’t to be for Eric Elwood’s men however and the final score was Munster 22 Connacht 6