European Cup Pool Four/Cardiff - 12 Munster - 22:Perhaps not a true Munster epic, but a classic, smash-and-grab away Heineken European Cup win by the champions.
On one of those sodden, mucky, bearpit occasions the competition serves up, Munster soaked up the rain and everything Cardiff could throw at them to strike stealthily, a trademark mauling try and an unerring kicking display by Ronan O'Gara steering them home.
It may be a dog-eared script but it's no less absorbing for all that. It helped that Cardiff brought little to the party other than ferocious physicality, really taking the game to Munster up front, and aerial bombardment. Don't they know Shaun Payne is as secure under the high ball as any fullback on the planet?
In this, he was ably assisted by the late call-up Tomás O'Leary and all the others with some grounding in Gaelic football.
They worked their socks off up front, none more so than Denis Leamy, whose abrasiveness and footballing ability continue to astound.
The close-in exchanges were also tailor-made for Alan Quinlan, man of the match, while, as ever, O'Gara delivered in spades, and as in Welford Road and so many other away wins, never missed a kick in landing six from six for a 17-point haul.
Peter Stringer too chipped in with a couple of big second-half plays when the contest was back in the balance.
The scrum stood up well, all the more so when 20-year-old Darragh Hurley - ex-CBC, Irish schools and UCC, and future Irish international - joined the fray for the first of many European Cup appearances.
Such was the pressure applied by Cardiff's defensive lineout, Munster felt obliged to overplay the throw to the back, which Frankie Sheahan missed four times, but when it mattered most, the lineout delivered.
With Anthony Horgan (Achilles tendon) ruled out, O'Leary was promoted to the right wing, and Ian Dowling reverted to the left flank, with the Portuguese Diogo Mateus promoted to the bench.
Though the absence of four Test forwards didn't prevent them fielding an all-international pack, coupled with the injuries to Barry Murphy and John Kelly, it left Munster looking down to the bare bones and certainly with little noticeable impact off the bench.
The early force was all with Cardiff, two penalties out of three by Ben Blair compounded by the sinbinning of Federico Pucciariello for an off-the-ball exchange with Scott Morgan, at the insistence of the French touch judge on the far side of the pitch.
A pattern had been set, largely emanating from the respective restarts. Robinson kicked longer for territory, but Munster's attempts to contest O'Gara's restarts did earn them their first opportunity off a ruck turnover when Morgan, lucky to be on the pitch, failed to roll away after the tackle, and O'Gara landed the 40-metre penalty.
Cardiff continued to boot the leather off the ball, but their kick-and-chase game backfired when Martyn Williams was rightly binned for a one-arm, stiff-arm, high tackle on O'Leary.
With Pucciariello returning almost immediately, the rested Argentinian nearly scored in the corner when cleverly ripping the ball off Dowling after good rumbling by the pack and Trevor Halstead.
It seemed the opportunity had been wasted when Leamy lost control at the base of the scrum and Peter Stringer fumbled his attempted pick-up. But they came knocking again when electing to kick a penalty to the corner.
Up went the roar on the red-populated north terrace, akin to Thomond Park. Feeding time at the zoo. It was almost encouraging when the Munster pack steadied as Cardiff repelled the initial drive off Quinlan's take, a secondary shunt taking them close to the line. With the referee playing advantage, Leamy picked up at the base with Quinlan as his wingman and the piano shifters behind him, to adroitly touch down one-handed when landing on his back. O'Gara landed a fine conversion.
With the last play of the half, the serial offender Morgan afforded O'Gara a 45-metre penalty. He adapted his longer-range technique to run through the ball, and his magnificent kick just cleared the bar. This sent Munster into the dressingroom with a bounce in their step, literally so in the case of the applauding Donncha O'Callaghan.
Crucially, Munster had the lead as the conditions worsened. Cardiff upped their intensity upon the resumption, and Munster's 13-6 lead was trimmed by a brace of Blair three-pointers, but Robinson continued to go skyward too often and aimlessly.
Handling errors by Lifeimi Mafi and Halstead didn't help, but alert footwork at the base of a loose Cardiff scrum by Stringer, followed up Leamy's rumble, enabled O'Gara to steady the nerves with another penalty.
Despite an excellent sliding gather in the mud by Shaun Payne and a couple of high takes by O'Leary and Quinlan, Munster were being regularly pinged at the breakdown and were crying out for territory as the exchanges became bogged down in midfield.
One of these, however, following another take by O'Leary, Munster carrying into the contact and clearing out relentlessly as the big hits went in, culminated in their good friend Morgan (his third three-point offence) high-tackling Wallace for O'Gara to make it 19-12 from 35 metres.
Farce followed when O'Callaghan was left shortless and, sporting an ultra-loyal pair of red briefs, even attempted to continue playing before a spare pair of shorts was located; or maybe he was advertising for a move to Stade Français. He was promptly taken out in the air by Bradley Davies, enabling O'Gara to close out the win.
The Fields had been drowned out early in the second period, but by the end it was the only song in town.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 7 mins: Blair pen 3-0; 13: Blair pen 6-0; 16: O'Gara pen 6-3; 31: Leamy try, O'Gara con 6-10; 40(+4): O'Gara pen 6-13 (half-time 6-13); 51: Blair pen 9-13; 55: Blair pen 12-13; 57: O'Gara pen 12-16; 69: O'Gara pen 12-19; 79: O'Gara pen 12-22.
CARDIFF BLUES: B Blair; T Shanklin, J Robinson, M Stcherbina, C Czekaj; N Robinson, M Phillips; G Jenkins, R Thomas, T Filise; D Jones, J Goode; S Morgan, M Williams, X Rush (capt). Replacements: B Davies for Jones (24-30 mins) and for Goode (61 mins), J Yapp for G Jenkins (half-time), MacLeod for Robinson (80 mins). Not used: D Goodfield, M Lewis, E Fairhurst, T James. Sinbinned: Williams (15-25 mins).
MUNSTER: S Payne; I Dowling, L Mafi, T Halstead, T O'Leary; R O'Gara, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, F Sheahan, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell; A Quinlan, D Wallace, D Leamy. Replacements: D Hurley for Quinlan (22-25 mins) and for Pucciariello (61 mins). Not used: A Kyriacou, C Wyatt, J O'Sullivan, J Manning, C Cullen.
Sinbinned: Pucciariello (13 mins).
Referee: Christophe Berdos (France).
How they stand
P W D L F A B Pt
Munster 3 3 0 0 84 54 1 13
Leicester 3 2 0 1 68 51 1 9
Cardiff 3 1 0 2 42 48 1 5
Bourgoin 3 0 0 3 41 82 0 0
