RUGBY:AS A natural-born Aussie from Brisbane who played for the Australian Under-21s and sevens, who has long since acquainted himself with last night's conditions such as these in his eight years with first Connacht and now Munster, Paul Warwick had clearly had few more satisfying nights in his career than this.

“Very satisfying,” said Warwick, who scored all the home side’s points. “Walking off I guess I probably feel for the Australians, being Australian. But I’m delighted with that performance. It was horrible and it was miserable, but something we’re probably brought up on – well, me being a Munster man now of course. But the Australians wouldn’t know much about those conditions.

“For us coming in at half-time level was huge. In the second half we needed to control the ball and we did. The amount of work our forwards did – I’m sure we’ll get the stats during the week – but they won that game for us hands down, and the amount of young guys in that pack too, that’s what makes it so impressive.

“People go on about the O’Connells and the Hayeses coming towards the end of their career but there’s depth there that people aren’t aware of and in games like this they have that opportunity to show they have the ability to step up when needed. Especially this year we have great depth. The crowd got behind us every time we got a field goal and I’m sure that helped the lads.”

Captain for the night James Coughlan, who Warwick quipped over-ruled him in electing to play into the wind in the first half, said: “Everybody showed up and showed what it meant to wear the Munster jersey. I’m sure coaches from under-12s up to Tony (McGahan) and Laurie (Fisher) will be proud of the effort the lads put it.

“Every little thing we did was cheered. It’s an incredible place to play on nights like this.”

Munster coach Tony McGahan said: “I thought our lineout was superb but I thought more than anything it was our breakdown work. So full credit to Laurie (Fisher) and the work he’s done there, and also our defence was certainly well marshalled and tough, and again I thought Anthony Foley has done tremendous work there this year. If you get those two areas right and that’s built on the back of spirit and passion and determination, and you bring those elements and bring all that together with the exuberance of youth you get a great result.”

“A great experience for the boys,” said the Wallabies coach Robbie Deans. “They were difficult unique conditions, which the boys are not accustomed to and that’s what we came here for; a different type of rugby.

“Munster knew how to play the conditions and won the toss which was pretty handy as well, because the conditions got worse. Holding the line intact was a pretty impressive effort in the circumstances. It’s not conditions we’re used to and some of the boys are still suffering from the hypothermia in there.”

“Maybe Munster can come to the outback one day, quipped the Australian captain Berrick Barnes. “You’d be more worried about catching a cold than the ball out there,” he joked, before adding: “Munster are blessed to have supporters like that I guess. It was a big crowd and difficult conditions.”