Connacht 12 Munster 6:Four precise penalties from as many attempts for Ian Keatley saw Connacht record an historic win over European champions Munster at the Sportsground. The outhalf was measured throughout and his mature performance was fitting reward for the effort shown by the first Connacht side to beat Munster at the Sportsground since 1979.

When top visits bottom there is usually only one outcome, especially when the latter have just two wins to the their name all season, but Connacht did not steal this win, it was thoroughly deserved after 80 minutes of pure heart and no shortage of skill.

A penalty in each half from Paul Warwick means Munster garnered a losing bonus point but that was not what they came for and only serves to stretch their lead over the Ospreys to three.

The homeside move to within three of the Cardiff Blues and will head to the RDS next week confident they can perform and possibly snatch a second win of the season over defending champions Leinster.

"They are good enough to analyse that performance for themselves," said Bradley of his players afterwards. "I think Gavin Duffy had an excellent game, John Mul (Muldoon) was out for eight weeks and put in a performance like that. Sean Cronin as well.

"There was a couple more as well. Munster had a lot of internationals playing in that game today and they weren't able to make an impact at all."

Connacht's defensive workrate was inspired from the off and forced as many uncharacteristic mistakes from Munster as has been seen in recent times.

Tony McGahan watched as his scrum falter on numerous occasions and the lineout was equally as poor.

In open play, handling was shaky but largely because the Connacht hits were early and ferocious.

Discipline was also a problem and when Doug Howlett was sin-binned for a tackling Duffy in the air, Connacht made the most of the numerical advantage and Keatley slotted two beautiful penalties for a six point lead with 10 minutes remaining.

Munster inevitably asked questions and when Howlett returned his kick through almost set Keith Earls free but the home defence was defiant and the danger was cleared.

"I thought Connacht played very well, full of fire, full of passion," said McGahan after the match. " I thought they took their chances very well.

"We know it was going to be a difficult game…..not enough patience and individual errors led to us playing well below the standards that we need to," he added on Setanta Sports.