Celtic League/Llanelli 25 Munster 12: Last night was Bonfire Night in Wales, and the game at Stradey Park was played before the backdrop of an 80-minute firework display, yet there was precious little spark on the field as Munster crashed to a third successive defeat of the campaign.
Jeremy Manning kicked all 12 points but a second-string outfit was made to pay for failing to turn possession into points, despite trailing just 15-12 five minutes from time. That was before Darren Daniel and Barry Davies raced clear to hand Llanelli all five points and deny Munster even a losing bonus point.
The Heineken European Cup may be the standard by which Munster are judged nowadays, but the Celtic competition will make depressing reading this morning for coach Declan Kidney, especially with seedings for Europe next season at stake.
The result leaves the European champions stranded in 10th place in the Magners Celtic League and already 20 points behind leaders Ulster after only seven games.
Team manager Jerry Holland admitted the title was now out of the question: "You can never say never, but it certainly seems that winning the league is beyond us now.
"We still have a game in hand over some teams, including Ulster, but we needed to get a point out of this game.
"We're obviously very disappointed because there were just three points in it with 75 minutes on the clock.
"I don't think the difference between the teams was our finishing ability - it was more that we seemed to lack the belief in ourselves that we could come to somewhere like Stradey Park and get a victory."
International commitments meant Kidney made 10 changes to the side that lost their last league tie, against Edinburgh.
Among those changes was the secondrow partnership of Mick O'Driscoll, also named captain for the night, and former Llanelli favourite Chris Wyatt.
Llanelli were similarly without their frontline players following Wales's clash with Australia on Saturday, though it was an experienced old head, Dafydd James, that scored the game's opening try on 21 minutes.
Kiwi centre Lifeimi Mafi made his first start for Munster and was twice involved in their first meaningful attack as hooker Andy Kyriacou, flanker Tim McGann and Murphy all went close.
Yet Munster could not find a way through and Manning was left to kick all his side's points as they trailed 10-9 at the break.
Munster enjoyed some success with their driving game but it was Llanelli who had the cutting edge when Kiwi prop Deacon Manu shoved his way over just two minutes into the second half.
Yet Thomas missed the conversion and as the game laboured on, a win was still within Munster's grasp. Unfortunately for them, they had neither the weapons nor tactical awareness to achieve that goal.
Manning snatched at a drop-goal and then hooked a penalty attempt that would have levelled the scores five minutes from time.
Then they handed Llanelli all five points on a plate with two crucial errors in midfield.
Trevor Halstead spilled the ball under the challenge of Regan King and Matthew Watkins pounced to send Daniel racing clear of Manning's desperate lunge before more sloppy defending allowed Davies to dart over five minutes into injury-time.
LLANELLI SCARLETS: B Davies; D James, R King, M Watkins, D Daniel; C Thomas, C Stuart-Smith; I Thomas, A Gravelle, D Manu; V Cooper, A Jones; I Afeaki, N Thomas, J Bater (capt). Replacements: J Mills for Cooper (49 mins), L Reed for Afeaki (50-56 mins) , G Evans for C Thomas (74 mins), K Owens for Gravelle (79 mins). Tries - James, Manu, Daniel, Davies. Con - C Thomas. Pen - C Thomas.
MUNSTER: S Payne; J Kelly, B Murphy, L Mafi, I Dowling; J Manning, T O'Leary; D Hurley, A Kyriacou, F Pucciariello; C Wyatt, M O'Driscoll (capt); J O'Sullivan, T McGann, A Quinlan. Replacements: T Halstead for Dowling (39 mins), J Coughlan for O'Sullivan (70 mins), T Ryan for Pucciariello (79 mins). Pens - Manning (3). Drop-goal - Manning.
Referee: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand).
