They dominated territorially in the opening half and led 7-6 after the home side conceded a penalty try in the 12^th minute, two Dan Biggar penalties keeping his side in touch.

However within minutes of the restart Munster were trailing and reduced to 14 men. Tommy Bowe was the beneficiary of a clearly forward pass on his way to scoring in the corner and shortly after Denis Fogarty was binned for coming in from the side.

Munster were fortunate not to concede a try when replacement Paul James knocked on over the line but Ospreys came away from that period of pressure with a Biggar drop goal and the out-half added a 63^rd minute penalty that really put this game beyond Munster.

They once again ended up reduced to 14 when James Coughlan was yellow-carded with 15 minutes remaining but they then played some of the best football for Williams to crash over wide on the right.

Ronan O'Gara who had missed much easier kicks landed a superb conversion and in the closing stages Denis Hurley, a replacement for Jean de Villiers almost did a reprise of his match winning act from earlier this year against the Scarlets, with a run down the right as Munster battled to save this game.

Munster: P Warwick, D Howlett (I Dowling), J de Villiers (D Hurley), L Mafi, K Earls, R O'Gara, T O'Leary (P Stringer), W du Preez, D Fogarty (D Varley), J Hayes (T Buckley), D O'Callaghan, D Ryan (M O'Driscoll 57 min), A Quinlan, N Ronan, J Coughlan, (N. Williams).