European Cup Pool Five/Llanelli 16 Munster 29: In the pantheon of epic Munster wins abroad in this tournament, there have been more thrilling ones - such as those against Saracens, Castres and Leicester - and there have certainly been warmer ones - the semi-final win over Toulouse in Bordeaux springs to mind - but for sheer guts in the face of adversity this was right up there.
The Heineken European Cup is in effect a knockout competition, all the more so (as Munster know only too well) if you lose your opening match. It begins in autumn, returns in the depths of winter and finishes up in spring or even early summer; aside from being a darned good side, the ultimate champions have to be a team for all weathers.
Compare Saturday's horrendous conditions to other big Munster days, specifically to that baking-hot April day in Bordeaux fully eight seasons ago, and you see it underlined how Munster assuredly are a team for all seasons. It brought to mind their sleeves-rolled-up defence of a two-point lead into the teeth of a second-half Parisian gale against Stade Français in the quarter-finals of six years ago.
For some of their number, no doubt, Saturday's effort had its origins in their club careers, for this was vintage Munster Cup rugby. Munster have long since evolved from the sepia-tinged, 10-man game of lore, but in a ground steeped in history (and the quicker it becomes history the better) they rolled back the years and rolled up their sleeves again (twice in the case of the frozen wingers Brian Carney and Ian Dowling, as they were helped into thermal tops during the second half).
In truth, they are more of a dry-track team nowadays, but they haven't forgotten their roots, and they are certainly a better wet-weather team than the Scarlets. In the opening quarter or so, when Llanelli had elected to play into the gale having won a useful toss, their offloading, high-tempo game threatened to wreak damage as it did in their quarter-final win over Munster a year ago.
Munster were quicker than normal to close the space with their fast-up defence, but it meant that if Llanelli runners freed hands in the tackle or offloaded off the deck, they could get in behind the unfamiliarly blue and thin-looking Munster line.
A case in point was Dwayne Peel - the master puppeteer of all that was good about the Scarlets, particularly in the absence of the injured Stephen Jones - latching onto Mark Jones's popped pass off the ground from turnover ball on halfway. Lifeimi Mafi did incredibly well to make up the ground and haul him down short of the line, and appeared to get to his feet in playing the ball. Arguably, Peel could have been penalised for not releasing but, not for the first or last time on the night, the baying home crowd helped convince the unconvincing Wayne Barnes that Mafi had killed the ball.
Once he agreed, Barnes had no option but to bin the Munster man.
When Mark Jones's searing counterattack through the unmanned midfield off Peter Stringer's poor box kick created Regan King's try, you feared for Munster.
But critically, as ever, Ronan O'Gara was utterly masterful at outhalf and unerring in steering home some excellent penalties, including one when Mark Jones was binned for killing the ball.
Every single Munster player contributed positively, however. In the first of two key moments, the evergreen Shaun Payne stepped out of King's tackle in fielding Rhys Priestland's angled kick and punted downfield. Fortunately, the ball appeared to stop on the Llanelli line and a panicky Stoddart fired it into touch, the ball ricocheting, off the head of a Munster fan, according to eye witnesses. Stringer had his foot in play and the quick throw should not have been allowed. Either way, the ultra-competitive and sharp as a fox Munster scrumhalf quick-wittedly picked out the alert David Wallace, who sauntered behind the posts.
With O'Gara's unerring boot helping Munster to a 22-10 interval lead, the buffer began to look insufficient as the storm whipped up and young Priestland chipped away at the Munster lead.
In the other key moment though, he missed a chance to trim the lead to three points just past the hour mark.
Thereafter, Munster resolved to keep the ball. Llanelli may have had the elements behind them - Payne was peering through hailstones with a hand above his eyes - but as Anthony Foley reasoned later with a shrug of the shoulders "you can't do much if you don't have the ball".
Llanelli hardly saw it again, and at times they weren't alone, as Munster stuck it up their jumpers.
Dowling, of all people, set the tone with a sharp tap-and-go for a 40-metre foray. Fractious frontrow exchanges saw Deacon Manu binned. Munster got their maul going and picked and went, or Stringer popped to one-off runners.
They worked their socks off, the Kiwi centres Mafi and Rua Tipoki joining in as auxiliary backrowers. Several multi-phase drives took them to within inches of the line, one of which saw Marcus Horan ploughing over.
By the end they were almost revelling in the fray, one bout of continuity lasting 33 phases, and they finished on the Llanelli line.
Some home players immediately sought the sanctuary of hot showers without bothering to shake hands, but the Munster players rightly returned the applause of their drenched but noisy and extraordinary fans. For the 3,000 or so of them too, another one to tell the grandchildren about.
Scoring sequence: 7 mins: O'Gara pen 0-3; 15: O'Gara pen 0-6; 19: Priestland pen 3-6; 26: King try, Priestland con 10-6; 31: O'Gara pen 10-9; 35: O'Gara pen 10-12; 38: Wallace try, O'Gara con 10-19; 40(+4): O'Gara pen 10-22 (half-time 10-22); 51: Priestland pen 13-22; 59: Priestland pen 16-22; 73: Horan try, O'Gara con 16-29.
LLANELLI SCARLETS: M Stoddart; M Jones, R King, G Evans, N Brew; R Priestland, D Peel; I Thomas, J Hayter, D Manu; A Eustace, S MacLeod; S Easterby (capt), G Thomas, D Jones. Replacements: A Popham for Easterby (6-13 and 31-39 mins) and for Jones (50 mins), V Cooper for Eustace (50 mins), J Davies for Brew (62 mins), B Douglas for Stoddart (75 mins), C Thomas for Priestland (76 mins). Not used: D George, G Cattle.
MUNSTER: S Payne; B Carney, R Tipoki, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O'Gara (capt), P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll; D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley. Replacements: F Sheahan for Flannery (64 mins), J Coughlan for Wallace, P Warwick for Payne (both 82 mins). Not used: T Buckley, D Ryan, G Hurley, K Lewis.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).
