First impressions from Galway on Saturday are that there is still some distance to go before the concepts of the new rugby revolution are fully grasped. Open expansive play? Not too much. Creativity? Little. Longer phases of continued rugby? None evident. Clever, tactical kicking? A few demonstrations from Munster. Enhanced support play? In short phases apparent, but overall inconsistent.

Maybe the first rule of changing the nature of the game in Ireland is that it does not work like Bird's Instant Whip. You cannot read the instructions on the back of the packet, then add water and stir for immediate change. This point was brought home by one of Munster's coaches, Declan Kidney, after his team had built a small lead and finally run away from Connacht at the Sportsground. "We were very tentative," Kidney said. "There seemed to be a fear of making a mistake, and the way we are trying to play there have got to be mistakes made. The players are given a licence to try things, but they like winning as well, so it has got to be a mixture of the two."

Niall O'Donovan, Munster's other coach, was equally content with the win but not overwhelmed by the manner in which it came about.

"It wouldn't have been the greatest game in the world. What pleased us was the last 20 minutes. We kept pulling way from them and in the end it was a wearing down process. We aren't really happy with the amount that was created. We have spent a log time building a certain game plan and it only came out in patches."

Whether it was the novelty of playing in humid conditions on a lush but greasy pitch in August, or a reversion to type rugby when the pressure came on, we will only find out in the days ahead. But this game was one battled out by the two packs with little ball seeing the daylight of wing or outside centre.

Errors were also the run of the day, as Connacht coach Warren Gatland dolefully acknowledged. "I'm very disappointed. There were too many mistakes. I just think it fell apart. We were not accurate enough. We kicked the ball out on the full three times, were turned it over too often, had too many dropped passes, too many bad passes."

As if to illustrate this, Munster's first score, from out-half Ronan O'Gara, came after a failed clearance kick from scrum-half Conor McGuinness was brought back 30 metres. Tight-head prop Martin Cahill then found himself on the wrong side of the ball following a lineout, allowing O'Gara to equal Eric Elwood's opening score to take the sides to 3-3 after seven minutes.

O'Gara added another penalty before the resourceful Mick Galwey put a bigger wedge between his team and the home side on the half hour. Shane Leahy rose perfectly for the lineout ball five metres from the Connacht line and, when he hit the ground, it was the Munster captain punching the cover at pace in the subsequent drive for the opening try.

When Elwood added a second penalty for Connacht after a rare break from Galwegians lock Graham Heaslip, the sides closed the half at 6-11 with Connacht still in touch but desperately needing to go up a gear.

O'Gara then executed the finest move of the game when he received a ball from wide on the left. Moving at pace to the right, he landed a drop goal on the run to extend his side's lead. Elwood added another penalty to keep Connacht in it before the final 20 minutes, replete with numerous stoppages, settled the match.

At this stage Munster's back-row trio of Eddie Halvey, David Wallace and Anthony Foley were making their presence felt.

O'Gara was again accurate with a penalty after a lineout infringement, before Shannon wing Andrew Thompson finally received the ball with room to manoeuvre, chipped ahead and forced a five-metre scrum. A quick tapped penalty after the set piece was disrupted and offered man of the match Halvey the chance to turn and slam down the ball one-handed to take the game well out of Connacht's reach.

O'Gara finally slipped a tackle from the tiring defence in the 77th minute to run in his side's third try, taking his tally to 19 points with the conversion and extending Munster's winning streak over Connacht to an impressive 11 years.