European Cup Quarter-finals/ Munster 19 Perpignan 10: "Far from vintage," as Paul O'Connell conceded, but in many respects this might be considered a vintage Munster win. When it comes to the knockout stages of cups, not least their Holy Grail, winning is everything.
Munster played better against Wasps in the Lansdowne Road semi-final two years ago, but lost. Little will be remembered about this win, but who remembers, for example, whom Leicester beat in the quarter-finals of their back-to-back triumphs of 2001 and 2002, much less their identity.
As expected, the absence of Barry Murphy seriously curtailed their new-found ambition and running game. What's more, this wasn't the sunny south of France, but a typically dank, blustery and rainswept Lansdowne Road, while unlike Toulouse, Perpignan and their gargantuan pack came looking for war rather than a rugby exhibition.
So the Munster dogs of war rolled their sleeves up and got down and dirty as only they can, none more so than O'Connell, who maintained his own run of brilliant form. Lifted into the clouds by John Hayes and Anthony Foley, he dominated the air here like few have managed, but what left as indelible a mark on the game were the sheer physicality and force of will he brought to his work in the close quarters and his ball-carrying.
Ronan O'Gara having inched Munster into a 13-10 lead early in the second half with a brace of close-range penalties, the Catalans opted for a close-range lineout off a penalty. O'Connell, bear-hugging anything in his way, led the offensive resistance that drilled the Perpignan maul back and sideways over the touchline.
The hand injury sustained in his opening game of the season, sidelining him for three months, was probably a godsend, all the more so after a Lions year, for he is still playing with a freshness and a hunger he might otherwise not have been able to muster.
He was far from alone. In their superior mastery of the basics, the oft-maligned frontrow of Marcus Horan, Jerry Flannery and John Hayes deserve a big "hats off". Around the pitch, Horan was fantastic.
Donncha O'Callaghan was not far behind, while the pack in general maintained a disciplined intensity throughout.
Trevor Halstead, targeting Manny Edmonds's non-existent defensive game, carried the ball as well as anyone, but his hands sometimes let him down. And game fist though he made of it, Tomás O'Leary looked like the proverbial fish out of water at times as a converted outside centre.
The outside three were solid in all they did, especially Shaun Payne, but Munster will use the intervening Celtic League games away to the Dragons and at home to Edinburgh to sharpen their cutting edge for the rendezvous with Leinster.
Declan Kidney had attributed O'Gara's injury scare, tweaking a hamstring on Thursday, not only to the heavy ground on which Munster had been obliged to train but also to the player's own perfectionism in remaining on the training pitch.
On days like this, the Munster pack would want no other outhalf in the world pulling the strings behind them and putting the ball in front of them.
Munster elected to play into a deceptively stiff breeze, which compelled them to keep the ball in hand, decline kicks at goal from the 40- to 50-metre range, and instead kick to the corner.
To their credit though, Perpignan's defensive maul scarcely gave an inch and they put up a fine rearguard action in keeping Munster at bay for the first quarter.
It required something different to give Munster's mauling offensive more dynamism, and Flannery provided it by breaking off and running at the Perpignan backs before O'Connell took Christophe Manas's low tackle to score on the blindside.
The crowd were perhaps a tad too confident and expectant at that juncture and in truth, it was only in the 77th minute they could afford let their voices ring.
The atmosphere quietened as David Marty exposed O'Leary's defensive inexperience to release Mathieu Bourret for a well-taken try, the 21-year-old converting from the touchline and tagging on a penalty.
Discipline was as key a factor as anything else in this victory. Perpignan's fierce competitiveness at the breakdown saw them force turnovers from the first minute but also incurred a cost: two sinbinnings and more pertinently a host of penalties, none cheaper than the ones that helped Munster swiftly turn a 10-7 half-time deficit into a 13-10 lead soon after Ovidiu Tonita spilled a routine restart reception when O'Gara resumed the second half.
Still, Perpignan came knocking many times after that and it took a pivotal and quick-witted tapped drop-out by O'Gara and rumble by Horan to lift a siege.
O'Connell took up the cudgel once more, O'Gara punishing first Hines for not rolling away and then Gregory le Corvec for a cheap, late and high stiff-arm hit on Peter Stringer after the outhalf's own jinking break.
Perpignan and analysts alike will look back on countless little incidents and deduce that this was a game the French visitors left behind. The three missed penalties in the last quarter by Bourret were all eminently kickable, while the tap penalty by Nicolas Durand on the 22 when nine points adrift with 10 minutes left was more rash than rushed.
Yet Perpignan aren't the first to be left harbouring such thoughts, and no doubt they won't be the last. It's a stuck record. Even when not at their vintage best, Munster invariably have a habit of doing just enough. Call it vintage Munster.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 19 mins: O'Connell try, O'Gara con 7-0; 28: Bourret try and con 7-7; 36: Bourret pen 7-10 (half-time 7-10); 43: O'Gara pen 10-10; 46: O'Gara pen 13-10; 65: O'Gara pen 16-10; 69: O'Gara pen 19-10.
MUNSTER: S Payne; J Kelly, T O'Leary, T Halstead, I Dowling; R O'Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell; D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley. Replacements: M O'Driscoll for Leamy (38 mins), J Manning for O'Gara, C Cullen for Dowling (both 80 mins). Unused: D Fogarty, F Pucciariello, S Keogh, R Henderson.
PERPIGNAN: J Laharrague; C Manas, D Marty, J-P Grandclaude, M Bourret; M Edmonds (capt), N Durand; P Freshwater, M Tincu, N Mas; R Alvarez Kairelis; N Hines, G Le Corvec, S Robertson, O Tonita. Replacements: S Bozzi for Tonita (21-29 mins) and for Mas (58 mins), C Gaston for Alvarez Kairelis (58 mins), V Vaki for Robertson (64 mins), S Naulu for Grandclaude (77 mins). Unused: M Konieck, S Dupuy, R Pez. Sinbinned: Mas (19 mins), Durand (53 mins).
Referee: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales).
