Munster 27 Connacht 27
Connacht were seconds away from a first win over Munster in 18 seasons but former Harlequin Paul Burke denied them with a last-minute penalty goal to secure a 27-27 draw at Musgrave Park last night.
Michael Bradley's side overturned a 10-point half time deficit, as out-half Paul Warwick converted Adrian Clarke's try, and added a penalty to lead 27-24 in the closing stages.
But 31-year-old out-half Burke managed to block down Eric Elwood's injury-time clearance and, following a quick recovery of possession and territory by Shaun Payne, Burke held his nerve with the last kick of the game.
Alan Gaffney's side ended a two-game losing streak in Cork as Anthony Horgan, Denis Leamy, Payne and Christian Cullen helped themselves to first-half tries.
Connacht, winless against the men in red in 21 outings, hit back through scores from Niall O'Brien, Conor McPhillips and Clarke - coincidentally all products of Leinster - but failed to hold out.
The visitors, buoyed by last Saturday's 31-15 turnover of Glasgow, went in front on 11 minutes, as summer signing O'Brien was put over, as centre partner Matt Mostyn ran a clever dummy run to expose Jason Holland.
Paul Warwick converted but saw his restart clearance charged down by Munster scrum-half Mike Prendergast, and critically the home side built the phases for Ireland winger Horgan to score in the left corner four minutes later.
Cullen's looping pass to the left saw Horgan creep over and, although Burke sent his conversion to the right, the former Harlequin did add the extras to Leamy's try, after the flanker had bulldozed through both Ted Robinson and Tom Tierney, to stretch over in the corner on 21 minutes.
Touch judge Tony Redmond binned Munster tight head prop Gordon McIlwham for a ruck punch but, when down to 14 men, Munster managed to pull 17-7 ahead as Leamy trundled clear over halfway with turnover ball and South African Payne went over in the same left corner.
Cullen went from villain to hero, losing his own tap ball on the Munster 22, for McPhillips to bring Connacht back within three, but first-half injury-time saw the Kiwi full-back put under the Connacht post by Holland for a 24-14 cushion.
Warwick energised the men in green with a penalty seven minutes into the second, and Connacht were back level by the 55th minute. Another brutish maul forward reduced Munster's front eight to a bit part, and 30-year-old prop Clarke was driven over.
Trevor Hogan felt the wrath of Welsh referee Nigel Owens with 15 minutes remaining and, with the Munster lock sin-binned, his bringing down of the lineout saw Warwick kick Connacht 27-24 in front.
With the reassuring hands and boot of veteran Elwood on the field for a bloodied David Slemen, Connacht looked resolute in defence. His Irish out-half rival of the mid-1990s, Burke had the last laugh as his injury time penalty ended their hopes of hitting the league's top spot.
PA