As draws go, this one at Dooradoyle yesterday couldn't have been fairer. It wasn't so much that neither side deserved to lose, more that neither side deserved to win.

Internecine Limerick rivalry and a sodden pitch decreed that this was never going to be a classic. Of it's type, it was all that you could have expected; a full-blooded, head-on, hard-tackling, forward collision which kept a 2,500-3,000 crowd (a healthy turn-out given you wouldn't have put the cat out) absorbed from beginning to end.

Yet, it has to be said that technically it was a poor game. You could go a month and not see the ball kicked as often as it was yesterday, and not always that skillfully either.

There was scarcely a hint of a try either. Garryowen's wind-assisted territorial supremacy yielded one out of three kickable penalties from Killian Keane and an abortive drop goal attempt by Barry Everitt to close out the first-half.

For all Munster's post-interval territorial supremacy, Aidan O'Halloran landed one out of two penalties and, similarly, with the last kick of the game Derek Tobin was wide with Young Munster's fourth drop goal attempt.

Though there were incidents of sorts aplenty, and one scary moment for the visitors on the Munster's line, in the heel of the hunt, that was pretty much that.

Of the two camps, neither was reaching for the Prozac at dropping a point, although understandably, Young Munster were a tad less satisfied.

Garryowen coach Philip Danaher had seen his team take the game to Young Munster in the first period, generally kicking for position well and winning some good line-out ball at the front of their line from their Australian import Van Humphreys.

Buoyed by Keane's expertly taken 10th minute penalty from about 40 metres out near the left touchline, they maintained the initiative pretty much uninterrupted, although they had to tackle well around the fringes as Young Munster sought to punch their way upfield through Peter Clohessy, Ger Earls, Declan Edwards and co. They also breathed a collective sigh of relief when O'Halloran pulled a drop goal wide with ample time and from in front of the posts after 14 minutes.

Garryowen also enjoyed some set-pieces inside the Young Munster's 22, but a couple of attempts to drive off the line-out ran into the proverbial brick wall. With Keane missing from 38 metres after 22 minutes and from just outside the 22 after 31 minutes, Garryowen laboured to a 3-0 half-time lead.

It seemed an insufficient buffer immediately upon the restart when the retreating David Wallace, in the low point of an otherwise productive, grafting performance, unwisely played the ball from an offside position after Keane had trapped O'Halloran's kick-off with his shin. Amazingly though, O'Halloran stroked the penalty from in front of the posts wide.

Now, though, it was Young Munster's turn to turn the screw. Garryowen's first two scrums skidded backwards and Stephen McIvor was having to turn water into wine. Young Munster monopolised their own line-out ball, and drove off it far more effectively, but they couldn't get a throw-in inside the Garryowen 22.

The home side's discipline - like Earls in the first-half Mick O'Halloran earned a yellow card from the excellent Alan Lewis for use of the boot - was manifested by Dominic Crotty's faultless positioning, fielding and return kicking and counter-attacking of the aerial bombardment that predictably came his way.

Despite a reshuffle in the back-line caused by Everitt's pulled hamstring, and in the front-row, the sky blue line held firm as the rain relented for the second period, the sun came out for the final quarter and the game ended under a rainbow. As Bob Hope once said: ["]Ireland is the only country in the world where you get all four seasons in the one day["]. Well, three out of four.

Twice Garryowen broke out dangerously through probing runs along the touchline by leftwinger Conor Kilroy, and Niall McNamara was playing a dicey game when allowing Keane's kick ahead to reach the line: the home side and nearby supporters loudly claiming that substitute hooker Pat Humphreys was first to the touchdown.

But, generally, the force was with Young Munster. O'Halloran drew them level with a 30 metre penalty off the upright. Boland and O'Halloran each scuffed drop goal attempts amid the safety-first, aerial ping-pong, and McIvor made a few risky options in a madcap finale.

Ironically though, the introduction of Des Clohessy actually reduced the effectiveness of the Young Munster scrum by the time they finally won a put-in inside the Garryowen 22, and Tobin's last throw of the dice drifted a couple of metres wide.