By the time O'Gara had departed the scene, Munster led 20-3 and although they ran out 35-3 winners in the end, their second half performance was somewhat below what had been seen in the first half with O'Gara pulling the strings.

Besides his 100% kicking return - that included a touchline conversion and a 40+ metre penalty - O'Gara was involved in all that was good about his side's display, mixing deft chips over the top with raking positional kicks plus the odd jinking dart that kept the vistor's defence on it's toes.

Tony McGahan also used the occasion to give youngster Tom Gleeson, Scott Deasy, Duncan Williams, Billy Holland and Mike Sherry and he'll have been pleased with their contribution especially Holland, Gleeson and Deasy who, with Paul Warwick already pressed into action probably earlier than anticipated, came on as a half time replacement for O'Gara.

Warwick came on as a 15th minute replacement when Felix Jones sustained a neck injury in a clash of heads with Johnny O'Connor. His cut-out pass sent Ian Dowling in for the opening score and he scored his side's third try in the 71st minute. But although they dominated that second half almost completely it did take them that long to get the third while the bonus arrived courtesy of Jean de Villiers with just seconds of normal time remaining.

Overall the game itself was in safe keeping by half time thanks to those tries from Dowling and Damian Varley and the boot of O'Gara. Munster lost their fluency in a scrappy second half but credit to them for being patient enough to claim those late tries and the bonus point.

Munster: F Jones ( P Warwick 15 min); D Hurley, T Gleeson, J de Villiers, I Dowling; R O'Gara (capt) (S Deasy ht), P Stringer (D Williams 72 min); J Brugnaut, D Varley ( M Sherry 76 min), T Buckley; M O'Driscoll, D Ryan; B Holland (T O'Donnell 62 min), N Ronan, N Williams (J Coughlan 62 min).

Connacht: G Duffy (capt); T Nathan, N Ta'auso, K Matthews, L Bibo; M Nikora, C O'Loughlin; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, J Hagan; M Swift, B Upton; M McComish, J O'Connor, G Naoupu. Replacements: D Murphy, R Loughney, A Browne, R Ofisa, I Keatley, K Campbell, A Wynne.