Glasgow 29 - 43 Munster: Glasgow hand match to Munster after losing way in second half

With a handy half-time lead, Lineen's greenhorns showed their inexperience after the break, making a host of unforced errors to give up field position and the points that a side like Munster inevitably exact as their rightful toll.

"I can't fault the effort," said a frustrated coach after the match, "but we have to cut out the errors and stop giving the opposition easy points. I was proud of what the boys did in the first half, they worked hard and they knew that the second half was going to be tough. We made a couple of silly errors, they got field position, score!"

The Munster forwards did what they do best and infinged at the breakdown to prevent Glasgow getting good, quick possession. The whistle went and the referee's arm went up to signal a penalty to the home side. Someone in the crowd shouted: "He's been doing that all day!". The match was exactly two minutes old.

If the Warriors fan had the measure of Munster, who have taken the art of infringing to new levels, so too did the Italian referee, who penalised the visiting team eight times in the first half alone including an early yellow card for Donncha O'Callaghan just before the half-time break.

This strict interpretation of the laws was as refreshing as it was surprising and it made for a wonderful game of rugby with the two teams sharing a total of six tries between them, Glasgow claiming two of them.

Duncan Weir was the main beneficiary of all Munster's dreadful indiscipline because the young fly-half kicked four first-half penalties, including one monster effort from the touchline just inside his own half, and added another one after the break.

It's a measure of the how the pendulum swung against Glasgow as the match progressed that the veteran Ronan O'Gara, 14 years Weir's senior, also finished with five penalties and an extra couple of extra conversions to boot.

It was quite a night for Glasgow's teenage playmaker, who was involved in pretty much everything good that his team did on the night and a few mistakes too.

After good approach work by Arg-entine winger Federico Aramburu and John Barclay, the fly-half kicked an inch-perfect cross-field kick with a hang-time that could be measured with a calendar.

Bernard Stortoni rose brilliantly on the right flank and knocked the ball back for DTH van der Merwe to dive over the line. The referee initialy called a knock-on but changed his mind after checking with the touch judge.

While his account was easily in positive territory, Weir also had a hand in Munster's two first-half tries when the fly-half kicked out on the full not once but twice. "That's what you get with a young fly-half, he'll learn from those mistakes" was Lineen's philosophical view. On each occasion Munster took advantage of the unforced error to score tries that kept them in a match they had no right to be contesting. The first touchdown was a short-range effort from No 8 Denis Leamy and the second went to winger John Murphy after Glasgow simply ran out of defenders wide on the right.

Glasgow were not only playing well but besting Munster at their own game. When the visitors kicked for an attacking lineout the Glasgow forwards gritted their teeth and rocked the ensuing maul backwards at a rate of knots. Moreover Glasgow's second try was straight out the Munster handbook. The home forwards drove into the heart of an undermanned Munster pack with a long series of pick and drives and eventually Colin Gregor wriggled his way over the line from short range.

Weir's conversion meant that Glasgow went into the break with a handy nine-point advantage but with scores coming thick and fast that lead never looked enough.

Munster came out for the second half at their best and immediately doubled their points tally with another two tries, Niall Ronan from a backrow move and Murphy latched onto O'Gara's grubber kick for his second.

Weir got a penalty back, his last act of the match, and Glasgow's last points of the match. Against that O'Gara kept his side nosing further ahead with three more penalties and, with a bonus point already in the bank, Munster were happy to defend what they already had rather than go in search of more.

Scorers: Glasgow: Tries: Van der Merwe, Gregor. Cons: Weir (2). Pens: Weir (5).

Munster: Tries: Leamy, Murphy (2), Ronan. Cons:O'Gara (4). Pens: O'Gara (5). Yellow card: O'Callaghan (37 min)

Glasgow: B Stortoni; DTH van der Merwe, M Evans, G Morrison, F Arambaru; D Weir, C Gregor; J Welsh, F Thomson, M Low, T Ryder, R Gray, R Harley, J Barclay (capt), R Vernon. Subs: D Hall, K Tkachuk, E Kalman, R Wilson, C Forrester, H Pyrgos, R Jackson, P Horne.

Munster: P Warwick; D Howlett, L Mafi, S Tuitupou, J Murphy; R O'Gara, T O'Leary; M Horan, D Varley, T Buckley, D O'Callaghan, D Ryan, D Wallace, N Ronan, D Leamy (capt). Subs: S Henry, W du Preez, Darragh Hurley, M O'Driscoll, J Coughlan, P Stringer, S Deasy, D Hurley.