Celtic League/Munster - 27 Connacht - 27: Daylight robbery would perhaps be stretching it, but only because the match was played at night-time.
Ruling Connacht's advancing back-line offside for the first time in the match, to grant Paul Burke a tap-over equalising penalty with the game's last kick, was one thing, but how on earth referee Nigel Owers came up with 10 minutes of injury-time quite another.
It was rough justice on Connacht.
A near rampant Munster had romped away with a bonus point by the interval but thereafter were subdued by Connacht's set-piece superiority, muscular maul, smarter territorial game, discipline and defence as the visiting team overturned a 24-14 interval deficit.
Leading 27-24 seven minutes into injury-time, Eric Elwood was informed by Owers that his ensuing penalty to touch would leave time for "one more play".
Munster reversed much of the night's trend when Trevor Hogan did enough to pilfer the throw but when they knocked on in midfield inside their own half Owers looked at his watch, only to allow two subsequent scrums.
Burke sprinted up to get a hand to Elwood's kick and, when Shaun Payne launched an attack from deep, the powerful Denis Leamy took it on for Owers to adjudge Connacht offside.
It left Connacht in a state of high dudgeon, having been denied a first win over their nemesis in 22 attempts dating back to Thomond Park in September 1986 and their first in Musgrave Park for 48 years.
Munster thus took three points from the game to Connacht's two, yet there was also some validity to Alan Gaffney's claim that Munster deserved something from a game which they decorated with more high-points.
Either making more off-loads or presenting the ball better in contact, Munster rucked harder and generally bossed the breakdown. Leamy and the colossus Jim Williams seemed to be at most of them.
A pumped up Jerry Flannery was immense around the paddock against his former team-mates, though he needs to brush up on his set-piece play, and, with Shaun Payne, Anthony Horgan and Christian Cullen giving them a sharper cutting edge, Munster's running from broken play was sensational.
For the surprisingly healthy crowd of around 3,500, Cullen was worth the admission money alone. Judgment on Munster's high-profile signing always had to be reserved until he'd had a full, injury-free pre-season and all his old confident swagger seems to have been restored.
His counter-attacking, hard running, and support runs always sent a tremor of expectation buzzing through the ground, typified by his line off Jason Holland's break for Munster's fourth try on half-time, but really television doesn't do justice to his remarkable runs off the ball. The man has an in-built radar which is simply a gift from the gods.
"I thought we did enough to win the game but in the end were quite lucky to get away with a draw," admitted Gaffney. "But I can't remember one (line) break they made in the second half. That's just the way Connacht play. They live off scraps, they have a very good rolling maul and set-piece. We did some very good things in the game, even though we made some basic handling errors, and we could have been a bit cuter. We created four tries, they didn't create a helluva lot, and creativity has got to come into the game somewhere."
Not surprisingly, Connacht's sprinkling of "Munstermen" were up for this one, and locks Andrew Farley and Christian Short augmenting the performances of Peter Bracken and John O'Sullivan, whose workload was exceptional, while the partnership of Tom Tierney, who excavated resourcefully, and Paul Warwick is beginning to blossom.
"Connacht should have won that match. It was over four minutes earlier. It was unfortunate that it was in Musgrave Park and the crowd got behind Munster. So be it," commented Michael Bradley.
In the broader scheme of things, he admitted while Connacht were good, it was only during structured play: "Once the play got loose our decision making was poor and that cost us dearly. We sharpened up on that in the second half. Our scrum, lineout, maul and territorial game were good. I suppose the disappointing thing was our creative play but Munster were very good at the breakdown."
There's little doubt this was an opportunity lost for Connacht. Although Munster were denied 10 of their internationals, they still possess greater clout, both financially and historically, as was evidenced by the eve-of-match signing Tom Bowman. He thus joined a foreign legion including Christian Cullen, Shaun Payne, Gordon McIlwham and Jim Williams.
Connacht, by comparison, shop for bargains. Hence, Munster started with seven internationals to Connacht's two.
Come the rematch on December 27th, the imbalance is likely to be greater, yet Bradley shrugged his shoulders when saying: "We'll have another crack off them then."
SCORING SEQUENCE
12 mins: O'Brien try, Warwick con 0-7; 17 mins: Horgan try 5-7; 20 mins: Leamy try, Burke con 12-7; 34 mins: Payne try 17-7; 38 mins: McPhillips try, Warwick con 17-14; 40 (+3) mins: Cullen try, Burke con 24-14; Half-time: 24-14; 48 mins: Warwick pen 24-17; 55 mins: Clarke try, Warwick con 24-24; 66 mins: Warwick pen 24-27; 80 (+10): Burke pen 27-27.
MUNSTER: C Cullen; J Kelly, S Payne, J Holland, A Horgan; P Burke, M Prendergast; F Roche, J Flannery, G McIlwham, T Bowman, T Hogan, S Keogh, J Williams, D Leamy. Replacements: J Storey for Kelly (52-60 mins), R Henderson for Holland (80 mins) D Ryan for Bowman (82 mins). Sin-binned: G McIlwham (28-38 mins), T Hogan (65-75 mins).
CONNACHT: D Slemen; T Robinson, M Mostyn, N O'Brien, C McPhillips; P Warwick, T Tierney; A Clarke, J Fogarty, P Bracken, C Short, A Farley, J Muldoon, M Lacey, J O'Sullivan, M Lacey. Replacements: E Elwood for Slemen (61-75 mins) and for Warwick (75 mins), C O'Loughlin for Tierney (69 mins), H Bourke for Fogarty (76 mins), P Neville for O'Sullivan (84 mins).
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales).
