One for the diehards only. On a night when you wouldn't have put the cat out, an attendance of 2,532 was rewarded with a systematic seven-try dissection of the Celtic League whipping boys; enough for Munster to top the group and ensure a quarter-final against the fourth ranked side from Pool A.
Not the least pleasing aspect of the final scoreline for Alan Gaffney and his team will have been the nil part, as this bright and breezy Caerphilly side may leak tries but they generally score a few as well. In addition to being a testimony to their tackling, it showed how much Munster kept a structure to their game in pinning their Welsh visitors down, thanks in the main to an excellent lineout maul and the lengthy line-kicking of Ronan O'Gara.
Munster did lose their way in the second quarter after initially scoring at a rate of a point a minute but regrouped and were still pummelling away at the finish. For all the mauling and the understandable handling errors, there was also some excellent handling and continuity, as Munster pointedly strove to keep the ball alive and play with plenty of width, and there was no more dynamic runner on the pitch than Mike Mullins.
"There were a lot of pleasing things and some disappointing things," admitted Gaffney. "The second 20 minutes of the first half wasn't too good but we put some pretty good phases together. I'm pretty pleased with the whole performance."
Although they were two tries up inside eight minutes and were opting for a scrum under the posts off a penalty after just 16 minutes, Munster weren't just running everything for the sake of it. Granted, they ran a quick tap in the first two minutes, steadily going through nine phases before Mossie Lawlor chased through Jason Holland's grubber kick, and though Caerphilly survived that, soon after Frankie Sheahan plunged over from a Mick O'Driscoll take to complete a lineout drive.
From another lineout, Munster moved it out, Mullins cutting back inside off O'Gara's switch with a good line to dance through.
When they called that scrum under the posts in the 17th minute, the ensuing back-row move saw Anthony Foley link with Peter Stringer before popping the ball up in the tackle for Alan Quinlan to straighten through and score. After two tricky misses into the slanting rain, O'Gara nailed his third conversion attempt.
However, Caerphilly didn't just roll over and the edge to procedings manifested itself when Stringer threw a flurry of punches in trying to free himself from Joel El-Abd at the base of a ruck on the line. The flanker's professional foul probably prevented a try, but in the event both players were sin-binned.
The yellow cards disrupted Munster's flow more, with Lawlor gamely filling in at scrumhalf, and as sheets of rain swept violently across the ground the inevitable handling errors increased.
Sadly, too, the interval coincided with the departure of Denis Leamy as he'd been suffering from a virus all week, though you'd never have thought it from the way he put himself about.
The flurry of second-half replacements also saw the introduction of Ginger McLoughlin's son Fionn at outhalf for Caerphilly. His first act was to try and withstand a charge for the line by Mick Galwey but there was no stopping the old warhorse.
Yet another lineout drive around the front yielded a try for Marcus Horan and as Caerphilly strove desperately to stem the tide, Geraint Liddon was yellow-carded. The Munster forwards kept hammering away close in, O'Driscoll diving over the line for their sixth try.
Munster saved some of their best continuity until last with two more length-of-the-field drives ending in Crotty squirming over with numbers to spare.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins: Sheahan try 5-0; 8: Mullins try 10-0; 17: Quinlan try, O'Gara con 17-0; 54: Galwey try, O'Gara con 24-0; 62: Horan try 29-0; 74: O'Driscoll try, O'Gara con 36-0; 82: Crotty try 41-0.
MUNSTER: D Crotty; J Kelly, M Mullins, J Holland, M Lawlor; R O'Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, F Sheehan, J Hayes, M Galwey, M O'Driscoll, A Quinlan, A Foley (capt), D Leamy. Replacements: E Halvey for Leamy (half-time), P Malone for Quinlan (78 mins). Sin-binned: Stringer (28-38 mins).
CAERPHILLY: S Tuipolutu; R Howells, S Cox, R Boobyer, T Tausahema; J Murphy, S Headington; L Manning, C Ferris (capt), R Skuse, M Workman, N Rouse, K Hocking, A Williams, J El-Abd. Replacements: P Jones for Rouse (47 mins), O Ashman for Cox (50 mins), F McLoughlin for Boobyer (53 mins), R Lloyd for El-Abd (55 mins), G Liddon for Skuse, G Williams for A Williams (both 63 mins), S Goddard for Ferris (65 mins). Sin-binned: El-Abd (28-38 mins).
Referee: M Hall (Scotland).
