Noel Walsh, chairman of the Munster Council and perennial Railway Cup evangelist, was in stern mood. "Tell the players that they weren't committed out there, that they weren't interested," he chided the media gathering outside the dressing rooms. "It was championship stuff." A prophet in his own land, but one not that easily ignored.

His upbeat message was justified. On a lovely, bright winter's afternoon in Killarney, a respectable crowd of about 3,000 witnessed an exciting contest which concluded dramatically in Munster's first defeat at Fitzgerald Stadium and progress to the final for the defending champions.

Leinster narrowly deserved the win. They had been the better team for longer and should have taken a more sizeable lead than five points in at half-time. Munster's commendable and calmly-accumulated recovery in the second half brought them to the verge of victory, but with less than three minutes left, the winners conjured the decisive score.

Wicklow's Kevin O'Brien, a Railway Cup star since he was 18 years old all of 12 years ago, was not surprisingly identified by manager Matt Kerrigan as a vital contributor to the success. His two points' total tended to understate that contribution and he was quite well marked by Clare's Barry Keating, but the second point was an important equaliser in the 54th minute at a stage when his team's loss of initiative was beginning to look fatal.

Four minutes later, he won the ball well and skied a dropping ball in on the Munster square where Peter Brady broke it to an onrushing Tommy Dowd. It was a classic Dowd move, bursting in on goal.

"You shouldn't miss from there, about two yards I think," was the player's self-effacing explanation, which did an injustice to his timing, nimble side-step and cool finish. Reprieved, Leinster played out the remaining time with their two-point lead intact.

It was a victory for the impressive levels of teamwork that Kerrigan has instilled in the side since taking over the province's fortunes two years ago. He had lamented the lack of continuity forced by yesterday's selection but in truth the only neophytes on the scene were Vinny Claffey, an All Star nominee, and Cathal Daly, an actual All Star, both - but Daly in particular - leading lights in Offaly's rise to prominence last year. Declan Darcy, with a proven scoring record for Connacht, was also featuring in a Leinster panel for the first time.

Yet it was Munster who were assumed to have the advantage in teamwork as their largely-Kerry selection (eight at the start and 11 by the final whistle) would have been particularly familiar with each other. The Kerry count went down from nine to eight before the throw-in as Pa Laide has not yet recovered from the back problem that kept him out of Kerry's preChristmas National League matches. He was replaced by Pat Hegarty of Cork who went full forward with Joe Kavanagh switching to the wing.

A strong breeze blew in Leinster's favour in the first half and obviously influenced the respective periods of superiority enjoyed by the teams. The sod at Fitzgerald Stadium was in excellent condition, if slightly over-protected by a deep-pile grass carpet, apparently keeping the surface intact for Tyrone's league visit next month.

For a match that developed so entertainingly, it had a deathlyslow start. By the 12th minute, the only score had been a fifth-minute free from Joe Kavanagh and Leinster looked sluggish.

Darcy levelled the score from a 45-metre free before initiating the defining score of the first halfhour.

The new recruit worked hard for the afternoon and offset some inaccurate finishing with plenty of industry and good play as a link between backs and forwards. It was his 14th-minute break which created an opening which O'Brien exploited perfectly to send in Ciaran Whelan. The Dubliner's shot came back off the post but bounced nicely for a fisted follow-up and Leinster's first goal somewhat against the run of play.

Broad patterns emerged. Firstly, the domination of Leinster's defence was obvious. Quicker to the ball and sharper, they denied the dangermen in the Munster corners - Mike Russell and Martin Daly - space to operate and even when a chance was created as in the 17th minute by Russell and Hegarty, the defence shut it down quickly.

At midfield Dara O Se and Fachtna Collins were under pressure from John McDermott and Niall Buckley and with three big half forwards to add weight to the Leinster challenge in the sector, Munster duly wilted and points flowed.

With three minutes to go to the interval, Leinster led by 1-6 to 02, had accumulated five wides to their opponents' one and had yet to concede a point from play.

By half-time two frees from Kavanagh had given Munster something to aim at and Paidi O Se a cause to preach in the dressing room.

"There was a strong breeze there," he explained afterwards, "and they got a goal a little bit against the grain. We said at halftime that if we got enough of points, we'd give ourselves a good chance."

So it proved. William Kirby's introduction to the middle improved the performance there and a more adventurous strategy from the half backs - Seamus Moynihan and Liam Flaherty with all guns blazing - pushing Leinster back. A stream of unanswered points, six in all, including four from play, turned the match around.

Substitutes John Crowley and Dara O Cinneide were among the points and the Munster attack had a more menacing edge. Mattie Kerrigan had introduced Glen Ryan, who is recovering from injury, and although he wasn't at fault the reshuffle coincided with a far less comfortable 30 minutes for the champions than they had had to tolerate in the first half.

Nonetheless, but for an early save by Declan O'Keeffe who deprived Ciaran Whelan of a second goal, the match would never have reached the exciting denouement which saw Munster lead three times in the last 10 minutes only for Dowd's late intervention to save the champions.

Leinster: C Byrne (Kildare); C Daly (Offaly), D Fay (Meath), M O'Reilly (Meath); D Lalor (Laois), G O'Neill (Louth), F Cullen (Offaly) capt; (0-1); J McDermott (Meath) (0-1), N Buckley (Kildare) (0-1); C Whelan (Dublin) (1- 0), B Stynes (Dublin), D Darcy (Dublin) (0-2, both frees); V Claffey (Offaly), T Dowd (Meath) (1-1), K O'Brien (Wicklow) (0-2). Subs: G Ryan (Kildare) for O'Reilly (half-time); P Brady (Offaly) for Claffey (39 mins); S Grennan (Offaly) for Darcy (56 mins).

Munster: D O'Keeffe (Kerry); B Keating (Clare), B O'Shea (Kerry), S Stack (Kerry); S Moynihan (Kerry) (0-1), L Flaherty (Kerry), E Breen (Kerry); D O Se (Kerry) (0-1), F Collins (Cork); J Kavanagh (Cork) (0-6, four frees), F McInerney (Clare), D Foley (Tipperary); MF Russell (Kerry), P Hegarty (Cork), M Daly (Clare) (0-2 both frees). Subs: J Crowley (Kerry) for Hegarty (21 mins); W Kirby (Kerry) for Collins (half-time); D O Cinneide (Kerry) for Foley (41 mins).

Referee: D Joyce (Galway).