Munster 40 Bridgend 6
Munster maintained their unbeaten record in the Heineken Cup this season with an emphatic victory over an indisciplined Bridgend at Musgrave Park.
The Welsh visitors saw four men sin-binned and scrum-half Jason Hewlett sent off for stamping as they were torn apart by the Irish side.
Munster ran in five tries but it was Bridgend who had started much the brighter of the two sides. Fly-half Craig Warlow's second-minute penalty put the first point of the game on the board and though Ronan O'Gara levelled three minutes later, the Irish number 10 missed another on eight minutes.
Munster, notoriously slow starters, were playing poorly and nervously in front of their own fans. Warlow took advantage of some defensive jitters in the 11th minute sending over a drop goal to put the Welshman in front again. Munster came under sustained pressure in the 20th minute when Bridgend turned over a home line-out. Munster won it back but Jason Holland fumbled and Warlow regained possession, instantly kicking into the corner.
Peter Stringer fielded the kick but mishit it straight to Gareth Jones and the scrum-half only got off the hook when Jones knocked on with the try line beckoning.
It got worse for Munster when O'Gara missed another penalty on 25 minutes and worst still two minutes later when prop Marcus Horan was sin-binned for a deliberate offside.
Warlow missed the subsequent penalty from inside his own half and Munster collected under their own posts. At this point they stepped up a gear and conjured up a superb try on the half hour.
O'Gara charged forward, passed to centre Mike Mullins who sent a brilliantly weighted angled kick through to Anthony Horgan. The Munster winger kicked it past on rushing full-back Adrian Durston and picked up to run over the try-line.
O'Gara converted to put the home side 10-6 ahead.
Two more O'Gara penalties closed out the first half as John Devereux was sin-binned and from a position of strength Bridgend found themselves 16-6 down at the interval.
The second half was all Munster. Right-wing John Kelly touched down two minutes after the re-start and although O'Gara missed the conversion there was no way back for Bridgend.
Their number eight Richard Bryan joined team-mate Devereux in the sin-bin as the visitors were briefly down to 13 men.
Munster added another try from full-back Jeremy Staunton in the 49th minute which O'Gara converted. The game was all over but still Bridgend's indiscipline continued. Warlow was also sin-binned deliberate offside on the hour and from the resulting penalty under the posts Holland scored a try in the corner.
On 65 minutes Lions centre Rob Henderson was thrown into the fray for his belated Munster debut following knee surgery but his entrance was overshadowed by Hewlett's sending-off for stamping on Horan.
Mullins added a fifth try for Munster and O'Gara's conversion brought the score to 40-6.
Bridgend still found time to lose another player, Jamie Ringer, to the sin-bin for pushing a touch judge. Munster flanker Jim Williams followed him a minute before full-time but it was truly Munster's day.
PA