And while there can be no quibble whatsoever about the merit of their victory it must be said it required two instances of last gasp defence to deny the home side tries.

The first came mid way through the second quarter when Ian Keatley chased down Fetu'u Vainikolo to deny him in the left hand corner and then in the second it was Peter Stringer, superb throughout who got across to deny Naoupu in the 69th minute.

Two penalties to one in favour of Dan Parks had Connacht leading 6-3 after 22 minutes and shortly after Keatley denied Naoupu.

Pack power led to a penalty try in the 39th minute and from the restart of that score, Connacht were penalised and Keatley boomed one over from the half way.

Within a minute of the restart Keatley had stretched the lead to ten points (16-6) with another penalty but Connacht enjoyed a period of dominance and a penalty and then a drop goal had the home side just four points in arrears.

Parks was wide with one he'd normally kick for a penalty that saw James Downey yellow carded and it seemed Connacht would snatch it when Naoupu latched onto a kick through but Stringer's intervention saved Munster's bacon, Naoupu adjudged to have had feet in touch before he touched down.

Connacht: R Henshaw; T O'Halloran, D Poolman, D McSharry, F Vainikolo; D Parks, K Marmion; B Wilkinson, J Harris-Wright, N White (capt); G Naoupu, M McCarthy; A Browne, J O'Connor, E McKeon. Replacements: E Reynecke, D Buckley, R Loughney, M Swift, E Grace, P O'Donohue, M Jarvis, E Griffin.

Munster: D Hurley; J Murphy, C Laulala, J Downey, L O'Dea; I Keatley, P Stringer; D Kilcoyne, M Sherry, S Archer; D O'Callaghan, B Holland; P Butler, T O'Donnell, J Coughlan (capt). Replacements: S Henry, W du Preez, BJ Botha, D Foley, S Dougall, D Williams, JJ Hanrahan, D Barnes.

Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU)