"A grand night for it," said one enthusiastic supporter arriving at Musgrave Park on Friday night. ‘It’ of course being the RaboDirect PRO12 game between Munster and Aironi but long before the end of that encounter, the Italians had incessant rain and the strong wind blowing directly into their faces and the scoreboard already announcing that this game had gone in Munster’s direction.
In stark terms it was your cliched, game of two halves.
In the opening half, Munster faced a strong breeze, a drifting rain and, let it be said, an inventive and committed opponent, and ended up leading 9-3 at the break.
It should have been 9-6, but Luciano Orquera missed a 'gimme' after Ronan O'Gara had edged Munster six three up. Despite the climatical disadvantage, Munster looked the more threatening with O'Gara pulling the strings and Doug Howlett and Johne Murphy constantly appearing with the 'open for business' signs writ loud on their forheads.
So too Peter O'Mahony, James Coughlan and Will Chambers whilst Paul O'Connell ruled the airways with some remarkable takes given the conditions.
Nevertheless, as had been the case a year ago, Aironi, thanks mainly to the work of Joshua Furno and Josh Sole out of touch, Nicola Cattina in the loose and Luciano Orquera and Sinoti Sinoti out wide, were still well in touch at the break that was heralded by an injury time penalty miss by Orquera.
But shortly before that, O'Gara had kicked Munster into a nine three lead with a fine effort into a stiffening wind.
Three more strikes from that almost unerring right boot moved Munster into an unassailable lead before he departed the scene to be replaced by Scott Deasy by which time the visitors obvious ambition was to preserve the sanctity of their goal-line.
And this they managed, despite the best efforts of O'Connell & Co. Deasy was given an opportunity to extend Munster's lead with a penalty but the ball toppled over just before he addressed it. He recovered to set off a move down the left hand side that had the Italians scrambling desperately to contain and when he was offered a further opportunity in front of the posts he opted instead for a close in lineout that once again the Italians thwarted.
Munster: J Murphy; D Howlett, W Chambers, D Barnes (Mafi 55 mins), K Earls; R O'Gara (Deasy 63 mins), C Murray (O'Leary 55 mins)(Fogarty 70 mins); W du Preez (Horan 67 mins), D Varley, BJ Botha (Hayes 64 mins); D Ryan, P O'Connell (capt); D Leamy, P OMahony (Ronan 33 temp & 56 mins), J Coughlan (O'Callaghan 61 mins)..
Aironi Rugby: R Trevisan; S Sinoti, A Masi, G Pavan, G Venditti; L Orquera, T Keats; M Aguero, F Ongaro, F Staibano; M Bortolami (capt), N Cattina; S Favaro, J Furno, J Sole. Replacements: R Santamaria, S Perugini, L Redolfini, Q Geldenhuys, F Ferrarini, T Tebaldi, N Olivier, G Toniolatti.
Referee : P Allan (SRU).