A short sleeved crowd, a summer hardened pitch at Thomond Park and Munster harvested their first interprovincial points of the season last night.
Indulging in a demonstration of luxury by starting with two Lions, Ronan O'Gara and Peter Clohessy, on the bench along side Frank Sheahan and Killian Keane, Munster took to the park bristling but initially lacking cohesion or confidence in an atypically awful 40 minutes' rugby.
The match, doubling as a Celtic League fixture, had several factors in Munster's favour. Their first league test against Edinburgh Reivers ended 25-22 in Scotland while Connacht perished at home 21-30 to the same side last Friday night in the Sportsground.
With Munster facing Neath this Friday in Wales, coach Declan Kidney was evidently looking to his depth of squad to tackle two games so closely packed together. But he could hardly have been satisfied with the handling errors and untidy set pieces in the lineout from Munster in their opening act.
Although the home side went into the break 12-9 ahead, they achieved that despite themselves. Five lineouts that were fumbled or over-thrown contrived to make their advantage much harder work that it should have been, or, normally is.
Connacht also had problems in the scrum with Welsh referee Paul Adams calling prop Peter Bracken to one side for particular attention after 22 minutes. His whistle was a regular feature of the first half.
Because of that fractured nature, the match had a staccato rhythm with all 21 first-half points coming from the boot of Connacht youthful Eric Erwood and Munster full back Jeremy Staunton, Elwood kicking three from four and Staunton replying with four from five. In all, a 50-metre run out of his 22 from Munster's John O'Neill at the fag end generated the only real frisson of first-half excitement, the resultant lineout amounting to nothing yet again.
Whatever scorching words Kidney had for his players it appeared to generate a second-half evolution, Munster gearing up and recycling with some pace and precision when they returned, Connacht unable to match the tempo. Big tackles in the centre from Darren Yapp and Tim Allnutt stemmed the flow a little but Munster soon found their width and penetration.
The arrival of Frank Sheahan in the front row and Ronan O'Gara for his first outing midway through the second half in tandem with the yellow carding of Connacht open-side Colm Rigney ultimately turned the match.
O'Gara's first kick two minutes after his arrival on 67 minutes was a lateral delivery inch perfect and straight into the hands of right wing John O'Neill, who was just five yards out from the Connacht line and in motion. The kick was wonderfully delicate and required immaculate poise.
Just two minutes later it was Staunton's turn to demonstrate his creative talent when he picked up 10 metres inside his own half and sprinted the rest, throwing an outside dummy to O'Neill in support just to see off fullback Gavin Duffy at the final hurdle.
Those two pieces of inventiveness and execution broke the back of Connacht's resistance. Marcus Horan dived over for Munster's third try for 40-12 but by then Munster's shape had been firmly imprinted on the match and there was no way back for Connacht.
Staunton, converting Horan's try, kicked his 30th point of the match, deservingly taking the trophy for best player on the night.
Kidney will look to the second half for order and inspiration against Neath. Steph Nel, the Connacht coach with a liking for mountaineering metaphors, caught a glimpse, in the second half at least, of one of rugby's Everests.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins: Elwood pen 0-3; 15 mins: Staunton pen 3-3; 18 mins: Staunton pen 6-3; 24 mins: Staunton pen 9-3; 32 mins: Elwood pen 9-6; 37 mins: Elwood pen 9-9; 40 mins: Staunton pen 12-9. 54 mins : Staunton pen 15-9; 57 mins: Staunton pen 18-9; 65 mins: Staunton pen 21-9; 67 mins: Elwood pen 21-12; 69 mins: O'Neill try, Staunton con 28-12; 71 mins Staunton try, 33-12; 78 mins: Horan try, Staunton con 40-12; 83 mins: Reddan try, Elwood con 40-19.
MUNSTER: J Staunton; J O'Neill, M Mullins, J Kelly, A Horgan; J Holland, P Stringer; M Horan, J Blaney, J Hayes; M Galwey (capt.), M O' Driscoll, A Quinlan, D Wallace, A Foley. Replacements F Sheahan for Blaney 60 mins. P O'Connell for O'Driscoll 63 mins. R O'Gara for Kelly 67 mins. J Williams for Foley 71 mins.
CONNACHT: G Duffey; P Duignan, D Yapp, T Allnut, O Grennan; E Elwood, J Ferris; D McFarland, M Uijs, P Bracken; R Frost, M McConnell (capt.), M Swift, C Rigny (yellow 65 mins), D Dillon. Replacements E Redden for Ferris 66 mins. J O'Connor for Swift 75 mins.
Referee: P Adams (WRU).
