RUGBY/Munster 3 Leinster 10:A horrible wet night in Cork may have ruined what had been a mouthwatering game as a spectacle, but Leinster won't spill a tear over that. Few victories this season will come sweeter than this one, their first competitive win in Musgrave Park since 1985 and their first on Munster soil since 1998, and if anything the conditions only helped give this utterly deserved win more kudos.

This fixture was always going to tell us more about Leinster than Munster, and the manner of this win confirms the impression that their pack has stiffened up significantly.

Although their try was a classy set-piece effort, out of kilter with the rest of the evening, as outstanding a memory will have been that of the Leinster pack mauling Munster 30 metres to their own line at the end of the first half following another take by the towering Malcolm O'Kelly.

As evidence of the improvement the returning Tigers, Leo Cullen and Shane Jennings, have brought, it was compelling. You could have closed your eyes and pictured Martin Corry and co. At the base, Jamie Heaslip grew in strength as the night wore on, almost getting over the gain line routinely.

The ball boys gave dry balls to Jerry Flannery, but wet ones to Bernard Jackman, who himself had another fine match to continue his rich vein of all-pitch form. The trench warfare up front was alleviated only by the countless boots to ball and up-and-unders in the battle for territory, and long-range shots at goal in what was always going to be a low-scoring, and most probably one-score, game.

Peerless as Shaun Payne was under the high ball, the booming left boots of the young, left-footed tyros, Rob Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald, and indeed Johnny Sexton when he came on, contributed significantly.

Indeed, the Leinster bench made the bigger contribution, Chris Keane adding muscle around the fringes. And Felipe Contepomi judiciously stepped in a few times to ease the pressure as he calmly kept hands on the tiller in a brave, composed performance.

Munster weren't bad but without the go-forward muscle of Paul O'Connell and Alan Quinlan were made to look a little ordinary and had surprisingly few ideas behind.

The minute's silence for David Noble allowed the 8,500 crowd and players to appreciate the din of the rain as it bounced off the ramshackle main, eh, stand.

When Mick O'Driscoll failed to hold Contepomi's kick-off, the ensuing penalty against Marcus Horan for dropping the bind enabled the Puma to open the scoring to complete silence, save for one dissenting voice, the owner of which was duly reprimanded.

When O'Kelly dropped the greasy pill out of the night sky from the return kick-off from Ronan O'Gara, and soon after Kieran Lewis, with his first touch against his erstwhile team-mates, did likewise from a Contepomi up-and-under, it signalled what was to come.

In the meantime so too did a bout of helter-skelter rugby - Jackman intercepting, Donncha O'Callaghan winning it back in the tackle, Ian Dowling kicking it away, Brian O'Driscoll and his cousin Ciarán Willis putting the ball out on the full - culminated in O'Gara surprisingly pushing a routine penalty wide.

Contepomi, by contrast, was quicker into his stride, pinging the corners with a variety of kicks. An accurate, long throw by Flannery and take by Denis Leamy and an errant touch flag earned Munster reprieves, and from the scrum back on halfway Ollie le Roux was penalised, allowing O'Gara to draw the sides level with a superb kick.

Thereafter, the remainder of the half ebbed and flowed but remained scoreless.

The most secure player under the high ball by a distance was Payne, secure where everyone else was understandably unsure, and it helped Munster in the key territorial battle.

One kick and chase, instigated by Donncha Ryan, was reciprocated by a tap penalty and daring counter from deep by Leinster - Luke Fitzgerald looping around Gordon D'Arcy.

A quickwitted kick along the ground by Contepomi off Stanley Wright's poor pass and Brian O'Driscoll's steal on the deck off Leamy, led to a quick tap and a bout of pressure that went ultimately unrewarded.

The Munster maul cranked up their intensity most convincingly in the second quarter, when Leinster's organisation and spirit may have been affected by the departure of O'Driscoll and Sexton's arrival, with Contepomi moving to centre.

But a forward pass by Peter Stringer to Lewis and a huge relieving kick by Sexton saw Leinster finish the half encamped on the Munster line off a huge maul as the rain briefly abated.

Leinster were reprieved when on the resumption O'Kelly failed to roll away and O'Gara's 45-metre penalty fell short, but the Leinster secondrow atoned with a good steal, Jackman mopping up well again on the floor.

Leinster began working their patterns and controlling territory better, but Contepomi was just wide from 40 metres.

O'Gara was then short from halfway before Leinster manufactured a try that, on the night, was like a blast of sunlight, or perhaps a bolt of lightning. Off quick lineout ball, Keane moved the ball to another replacement, Keith Gleeson, who showed the deftest of touches with an inside pass to Fitzgerald.

Taking a great line through the Munster defence, the youngster threw a beauty of a pass from left to right for Shane Horgan to power in at the corner, with a little help from Kearney. Contepomi's extraordinary, angled conversion gave them more breathing space.

Leinster had the bit between their teeth, pushing up and tackling harder as they kept the opposition at arm's length, even during Munster's most sustained bout of multi-phase attacking. Long before the end, only the Leinster fans were singing in the rain.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 1 min: Contepomi pen 0-3; 13: O'Gara pen 3-3; (half-time 3-3); 66: Horgan try, Contepomi con 3-10.

MUNSTER: S Payne; K Lewis, 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 Ryan, D Wallace, D Leamy. Replacements: F Sheahan for Flannery, T Buckley for Hayes (both 65 mins). Not used: J Coughlan, A Foley, G Hurley, P Warwick, B Murphy.

LEINSTER: R Kearney; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, L Fitzgerald; F Contepomi, C Willis; O le Roux, B Jackman, S Wright; L Cullen, M O'Kelly; S Keogh, S Jennings, J Heaslip. Replacements: J Sexton for O'Driscoll (30 mins), C Keane for Willis (55 mins), K Gleeson for Keogh (58 mins), C Jowitt for Jennings, G Brown for Kearney (both 84 mins), C Healy for Wright (85 mins). Not used: B Blaney.

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).