Leinster 0 Munster 18:NO, MUNSTER weren't about to let Leinster beat them three times in a row. Felipe Contepomi having let them off the hook with three early missed penalties, thereafter they were always the more dominant force in a compelling game.
In what was a feather in the cap for the new Tony McGahan coaching ticket, Munster were also the better-organised and more ambitious side.
They had learned from their distracted performance here last April, and their superiority started with an impenetrable defence, which stepped up more forcefully to take the space and make tackles on their terms.
Not generating sufficient go-forward ball, Leinster played with a curious narrowness and long before the end looked to be lacking variety, ideas and leadership.
Admittedly, the eventual European champions lost both games last season. Yet a rueful Leinster were left nursing merely crumbs. Their defence stood up manfully to a fair old battering until the 69th minute - when finally Munster's superiority told - and Malcolm O'Kelly and co did some damage to the Munster lineout.
Rocky Elsom and CJ van der Linde looked hungry for work, but the latter gave away some unwarranted penalties, and ultimately Marcus Horan, after his own early indiscretions, and John Hayes could feel proud of their night's work.
Thankfully too, hand and shoulder injuries to the tireless Jerry Flanery and The Bull were described merely as "stingers".
The workrate of Paul O'Connell, Donncha O'Callaghan and David Wallace was immense. The dancing feet of Lifeimi Mafi and Keith Earls made them the most dangerous runners on the field. And O'Gara ran the game like it was his personal orchestra.
The crowd were really into every shuddering collision from the first minute to the last, the atmosphere fairly crackling, much like the game. Though low-scoring, it ebbed throughout at a breakneck pace and was let run by referee Stanley McDowell.
It would have been interesting to see how the game would have panned out had Contepomi landed two or three of those early penalties but what unfolded suggested Munster were hellbent on playing with width anyway, even if they were also a bit lateral.
They were cuter in playing territory too. O'Gara rarely looked to kick the ball, though when he did it was usually with his customary maximum precision, and he put so much pace and width on the ball that it also made Jonathan Sexton look pedestrian by contrast.
Admittedly, there were hints of the early indiscipline that cost Munster so dearly in the corresponding fixture here last year.
But amid hints that his old Munster demons were at him again, Contepomi missed those three kicks, two of which were badly struck from wide to the right either side of a routine close-range effort that hit an upright.
O'Gara had missed a straightish drop goal a minute after the kick-off, but you sensed he would be less profligate when his next chance came. The workaholic Mafi won a turnover from which Earls found a stunning 80-metre touch before O'Gara then weighed up his options with an angled, but overcooked, kick that eluded Flannery.
Back Munster came, Doug Howlett coming round Rua Tipoki on the wraparound to be tackled by Shane Horgan, before Contepomi came though illegally on O'Leary and O'Gara opened the scoring.
O'Gara promptly arrowed a kick into the corner, Earls countered superbly, O'Callaghan chucked Shane Jennings's gumshield into the crowd and Munster were generating quicker ball and playing at a higher tempo.
Leinster, by contrast, could not get going; a trademark Contepomi popped pass behind his back going to ground, the referee getting in the way of Jamie Heaslip's pass to Chris Whitaker off the base and O'Kelly's quick tap-down to the scrumhalf not going to hand.
But, roared on by the crowd, Leinster's defence was equally immense, and with big plays by Girvan Dempsey, Horgan and Heaslip, they kept Munster to three points at the break.
After the resumption, skip passes by O'Gara and Tipoki released Earls for a break, chip and kick ahead that required last-ditch defending again by Horgan, who was soon making the last tackle in his right-hand corner on Wallace after O'Gara and Tipoki had switched flanks off Donncha Ryan's quick throw.
Scrum pressure yielded another penalty for O'Gara to make it 6-0.
Cue Alan Quinlan's introduction, and he immediately won a relieving turnover penalty for not releasing after Tipoki tackled Stan Wright as Leinster persisted in going down the same channels.
Eventually Munster had to be rewarded for their greater intensity and ambition. Dowling covered a counter-chip by Luke Fitzgerald, and when O'Callaghan set up ruck ball, O'Gara and Tipoki moved it wide from deep to Mafi.
Once again he created the space out wide for Earls to attack, and though Contepomi tackled him the young fullback popped the ball up for Justin Melck. Having taken a good support line off the wing, he dummied to the supporting Quinlan and Mafi to step inside Rob Kearney and also take Heaslip's tackle for a fine try.
Leinster's fans were silenced, and far from running down the clock, the introduction of Peter Stringer saw Munster up the tempo some more.
A wilting Leinster now resorting to catch-up, Tipoki made a huge hit on Dempsey to force another spillage, and everyone was alive to the possibilities, Horan taking a telling line off Stringer.
From the recyle, O'Gara spotted the absence of a sweeper to grubber through for Howlett to gather and swivel over the line.
Suddenly The Fieldswas winning the RDS song contest. Munster iron will rules again, okay.
SCORING SEQEUNCE:18 mins: O'Gara pen 0-3 (half-time 0-3); 57: O'Gara pen 0-6; 69: Melck try 0-11; 80: Howlett try, O'Gara con 0-18.
LEINSTER:G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, F Contepomi, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, C Whitaker; R McCormack, B Jackman, CJ van der Linde; L Cullen (capt), M O'Kelly; R Elsom, S Jennings, J Heaslip. Replacements: S Wright for McCormack (half-time); R Kearney for Horgan (57 mins), T Hogan for O'Kelly (71 mins). Not used: J Fogarty, C Jowitt, S O'Brien, C Keane.
MUNSTER:K Earls; D Howlett, R Tipoki, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O'Gara, T O'Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes; P O'Connell (capt), D O'Callaghan; D Ryan, D Wallace, J Melck. Replacements: F Sheahan for Flannery (54 mins), A Quinlan for Ryan (56 mins), F Pucciariello for Horan (72 mins), P Stringer for O'Leary (73 mins), Horan for Hayes, J O'Sullivan for Melck (both 76 mins). Not used: P Warwick, B Murphy.
Referee:Simon McDowell (IRFU).
