They led 18-9 at half-time but Dragons skipper Stephen Jones brought his side right back into it when he scored in the right hand corner just over a minute into the restart to reduce the deficit to four points. But Munster responded superbly, Paul Warwick settling nerves with a 45th minute penalty and although failing to convert when Man of the Match Mick O'Driscoll crashed over six minutes later, Warwick made amends when he added the extras to Johne Murphy's superb effort in the 74th minute.

Just before the end, replacement Alan Quinlan gobbled up a ball at the tail of a lineout to score Munster's fifth try with Warwick knocking over the conversion.

Munster: J Murphy, D Howlett, L Mafi, P Warwick, S Zebo, D Cusack, C Murray, M Horan, D Fogarty, S Archer, I Nagle, M O’Driscoll capt; D Ryan, J Coughlan, D Leamy. Replacements: D Varley, W du Preez, T Buckley, A Quinlan, T O’Donnell, P Stringer, S Tuitupou, D Barnes.