They gave as good as they got in the opening half and although they trailed 13-7 at the break seemed well in contention although knowing they needed to come out of the traps fast in the second half.

They didn't.

Instead it was the Dragons who immediately upped the ante with a well worked Will Harries try that Jason Tovey converted and although Tommy O'Donnell offered some hope of a comeback with a try in the 46th minute, the Dragons continued to make the most of their opportunities while Mnster continued to rack up the errors.

Tovey kicked a 49th minute penalty that Ronan O'Gara cancelled out six minutes later but Dragons hammered in the final nail with a try from Martyn Thomas with 15 minutes remaining.

Tovey added a further penalty and although Tony Buckley scored just at the end, it cant have acted even as a consolation to a well beaten Munster team.

Munster: P Warwick; D Howlett, L Mafi, J de Villiers, D Hurley; R O'Gara (S Deasy 76 min), P Stringer (D Williams 68 min) M Horan J Brugnaut 67 min), D Fogarty (D Varley 60 min), T Buckley; M O'Driscoll capt, B Holland; A Quinlan I Nagle 70 min), T O'Donnell (N Williams 49 min), J Coughlan.

Dragons: M Thomas; W Harries, M Watkins, A Smith, A Brew, J Tovey, W Evans; H Gustafson, T Willis (capt), B Castle; A Jones, L Charteris; D Lydiate, G Thomas, L Evans. Replacements: S Jones, P Palmer, R Sidoli, H Macdonald, T Riley, J Arlidge, J Leadbeater.

Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU).