A dominant pack that included a front-row of Marcus Horan, Damian Varley and BJ Botha, perhaps not surprisingly set the tone of this game at the Sportsground that Munster won 19-3.
Connacht really had no answer in the opening half to the power of the Munster tight eight, the home side conceding a penalty try and having two players sin-binned in the opening half that opened with a penalty from Tadhg Leader.
Munster led 16-3 at the break thanks to three Scott Deasy penalties and his conversion of that penalty try but they could only manage one score in the second half – another Deasy penalty – as Connacht again had a player yellow carded.
The positives from a Munster point of view were the performance at scrum-half by Tomas O'Leary, the return to action of hooker Damien Varley after his return from New Zealand and the introduction of Will Chambers for his first game since arriving from Australia.
Munster A: S Scanlon (Deasy 52 min); L O'Dea, W Chambers, T Gleeson (JJ Hanrahan 57 min), S Zebo; S Deasy (Cusack 40 min), T O'Leary (D Williams 64 min); M Horan (Kilcoyne 60 min), D Varley (Fogarty 60 min), BJ Botha (Ryan 60 min); I Nagle (Donnellan 67 min), D Foley; D O'Callaghan, T O'Donnell (O'Hara 67 min), J Coughlan capt.
Connacht A: S Layden; J Cleary, M McCrea, D McSharry, C Boland; J Carty, D Moore; D Buckley, D Murphy, S Maguire; M Kearney, D Gannon capt; D Heffernan, E Grace, E McKeon. Replacements: K O'Byrne, F Bealham, J Stevens, D Qualter, A Conneely, M Dolan, T Leader, F Gormley.
Referee: M Patton (IRFU).
