RUGBY/Celtic League/Munster v Leinster:A newish, or at any rate, revised casting as these two met at Thomond Park for the first time in 11 years but the same dog-eared script and no less absorbing for all of that.
The latest instalment in this internecine interprovincial rivalry didn't quite scale the heights of recent meetings but if it wasn't a classic, it nevertheless was classical Munster.
The European champions sought to take on Leinster in a running game for much of the opening period, at the end of which the visitors led 11-10, but thereafter tightened things up, kept control of the ball, played territory, took their three-pointers through some bloke called O'Gara and let Leinster implode.
Solid as the proverbial rock on their own set-pieces, they gradually cranked up the pressure on Leinster's, but more than anything they competed with fearless fury at the breakdown, forcing more and more turnovers off increasingly isolated Leinster runners.
Here, all the red shirts worked like dervishes, backs as much as forwards. The workaholic, ultra-physical Denis Leamy appeared to be everywhere, while Donncha O'Callaghan and John Hayes continued their big seasons.
In truth, Munster rarely looked like manufacturing a try, though Barry Murphy still managed to shine, and once again it was hard to quibble with yet another man-of-the-match award for Ronan O'Gara. A steady hand on the tiller, pinning Leinster into their own 22 for stretches of the second period, he also landed seven from seven kicks for a 20-point haul.
Confronting him was always going to be a huge ask for Johnny Sexton, who acquitted himself well in the circumstances, but any team coming here needs an equally assured, 100-per-center at 10, on top of which they need to keep their heads in the furnace.
Undoubtedly, referee Alan Lewis was swept up in the emotion of it all, but like so many European visitors before them, so were Leinster.
The 17-7 penalty count, or thereabouts, looked excessive, but some of the penalties, and the fracas, could have been avoided.
Up front, Stephen Keogh tried manfully, ditto Gordon D'Arcy with ball carries into brick walls, and while their scrum performed reasonably, once Malcolm O'Kelly was replaced for conceding the three-pointer that pushed Munster two scores ahead, their lineout crumpled too. By the end, amid the plethora of replacements that saw even Felipe Contepomi quickly hobbling, they looked a little rudderless.
The bragging rights will be all Munster's again until next season, unless they bump into each other in the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup.
There was plenty of repartee throughout the off-field exchanges and right from the off Leinster's "ultras" - congregated at the Ballynanty end Munster defended from the kick-off - launched into the familiar refrain of "Boring, boring Munster" to the Paul O'Connell catch, pack drive and ensuing penalty off Sexton's kick-off.
It sounded a bit premature.
Sexton settled quickly with a well-struck 45-metre penalty after five minutes but Ian Dowling helped up the decibel level with a chip-and-catch to put Munster on the front foot.
An even bigger roar greeted the decision to tap the next penalty into the corner. Feeding time at the zoo.
Munster's reward was accentuated when Keith Gleeson was binned for coming through on Peter Stringer. As Munster scented blood and opted for the scrum, Leinster's seven crumpled in a heap over their own line and Lewis went behind the posts. Penalty try.
Leinster's response in the absence of Gleeson was to play with more width. From a recycled seven-man scrum, Sexton skipped both centres with a lovely, long pass to Denis Hickie, on the wraparound, to feed Girvan Dempsey, who straightened through the gap to score a well-worked and well-finished try.
Some searing, siege-gun punts by Hickie were giving Leinster territorial foothold but Stanley Wright was penalised by Lewis for needlessly stamping on O'Connell's ankle, Stephen Keogh conceded 10 metres for dissent, and when Leinster's scrum again came under pressure it led to an O'Gara penalty. Even so, it was Leinster who went into the break a man and a point up after Shane Horgan ran back a poor O'Gara kick by running through Dowling in the prelude to Frankie Sheahan being binned for playing the ball on the deck. Sexton made it 11-10. Game on, but not for long.
The post-interval exchange of penalties saw O'Gara land his and Sexton miss from 45 metres, and worse followed for Leinster when Dempsey was carried off to be replaced by Rob Kearney, rumoured to be heading this way next season.
He was welcomed here in clinical fashion with the first of two steepling garryowens by O'Gara, holding them initially but spilling them when hit by the voracious chasers Trevor Halstead and Shaun Payne.
Leinster needed to keep cool but their bête noire, touchjudge Simon McDowell, intervened to penalise Wright after a scuffle involving several players. Grist to the Munster mill. Up went the chants of "Off, off, off". And cue another O'Gara penalty.
Kearney needlessly became embroiled with Dowling after being tackled into touch, Jamie Heaslip climbed all over John O'Sullivan at the throw-in and the die was cast.
Munster weren't as clinical as they might have been with attacking setpieces, but after O'Gara had punished O'Kelly for hands in the ruck, they bided their time, encamped in Leinster territory, and as if ordained, the mist rolled in as O'Gara tagged on the final two three-pointers.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 mins: Sexton pen 0-3; 13: penalty try, O'Gara con 7-3; 21: Dempsey try 7-8; 39: O'Gara pen 10-8; 40(+2): Sexton pen 10-11 (half-time 10-11); 43: O'Gara pen 13-11; 53: O'Gara pen 16-11; 60: O'Gara pen 19-11; 80: O'Gara pen 22-11; 84: O'Gara pen 25-11.
MUNSTER: S Payne; J Kelly, B Murphy, T Halstead, I Dowling; R O'Gara, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, F Sheahan, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell (capt); J O'Sullivan, D Wallace, D Leamy. Replacements: A Kyriacou for O'Sullivan (50-52 mins), D Hurley for Pucciariello (64 mins), J Coughlan for O'Sullivan (78 mins).Sinbinned: Sheahan (40+2 mins).
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, D Hickie; J Sexton, G Easterby; R McCormack, B Jackman, S Wright; T Hogan, M O'Kelly; S Keogh, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: O Finegan for Hogan (30-36 mins), R Kearney for Dempsey (49 mins), C Jowitt for Keogh (59 mins), C Whitaker for G Easterby (64 mins), F Pala'amo for Wright, F Contepomi for Sexton (both 68 mins). Sinbinned: Gleeson (12 mins).
Referee: Alan Lewis (IRFU).
