Losing by a point away from home, having trailed by 13 points with twenty minutes to go, and having played part of the previous twenty with 13 players, may at first sight encourage praise. However there was very little of that in the wake of Munster’s 19-18 defeat to Benetton Treviso at the well attended Stadio Monigo.
Without for one moment taking away from the home side's achievement, their sixth home win in seven games, this was a disappointing Munster performance. Yes, they were missing a long list of frontline players. So too were Treviso.
But they were also missing a whole lot more besides and although they did put themselves in a position to win this game with a converted try and 13 minutes left on the clock, they lacked the patience or the penetration to close the deal.
At the end of a first half that saw them cough up set piece possession on seven occasions they trailed 6-3. The gap went to six points when the unerring boot of Willem de Waal landed a 47th minute penalty and when the out-half added the touchline conversion to Gonzalo Padro's 69th minute try the crowd erupted.
However by now, Munster had sent on Mick O'Driscoll, Donnacha Ryan and Denis Hurley and they certainly brought a greater urgency to proceedings. With O'Driscoll leading by example they got a foothold in the home 22 and came away first with a penalty and then a try courtesy of skipper Doug Howlett with Warwick's conversion leaving just three points separating the sides.
But crucially, de Waal banged over another long range penalty before James Coughlan, who had a fine game throughout, scored Munster's second try. Warwick pulled the conversion just wide and to their credit Benetton managed to confine play to the Munster end for the remainder of the game.
Munster: S Deasy (D Hurley 60); D Howlett, T Gleeson (S Tuitupou 51), L Mafi, S Zebo (D Hurley 55-60); P Warwick, D Williams; D Hurley (W du Preez h/t), D Varley (M Sherry 57-66), S Archer (P Borlase 60); I Nagle (D Ryan 60), D Foley (M O'Driscoll 49), B Holland (M Sherry 47-57), T O'Donnell, J Coughlan.
Treviso: B Williams; L Nitoglia (B de Jager 79), E Galon, A Pratichetti (T Benvenuti 61), M Sepe (E Ceccato 37-44); W De Waal, T Botes; M Rizzo (I Fernandez Rouyet 6), F Sbaraglini, L Cittadini (P Di Santo 60); A Pavanello (capt), C Van Zyl; B Vermaak, G Padrò, M Filippucci (E Pavanello 78).
Referee: James Jones (WRU).