Even the normally pragmatic Brent Pope found it hard to hide his feelings.

"That was fabulous. In my seven years with St Mary's and Clontarf I had never managed to be involved in a winning side against Young Munster," said the beaming Clontarf coach at Castle Avenue.

"At half-time I thought we would be just fighting for our pride. I felt the pack had been outplayed, and possibly intimidated by Munsters. So I asked them to stand up for themselves and I thought Henry Hurley and Pat Ward gave the leadership we were missing before the break."

Although Hurley got the man of the match award it was Ward who effected the sort of tackles that kept Clontarf from going under. In the 37th minute, he actually held a diving Derek Tobin up over the line and shunted him back into play to prevent a try beside the posts.

Aidan O'Halloran sent the equaliser to Richard Murphy's fourth minute penalty two minutes from the break when he kicked a penalty from his third attempt.

Young Munster were impressive in that first half. They played to their strengths, using the forwards as a platform for the half-backs Tobin and O'Halloran, well, to reintroduce their forwards.

The heavy pitch did reduce the pace of the game. Clontarf's Dara McElligott looked a threat on the right wing. But, he is a big man and he found it difficult to move through the gears. Behind him, full back Mark Woods was as safe as Fort Knox.

The intensity of the forward exchanges drew gasps from a wincing crowd. This was hard edged, unrelenting, in your face rugby. Young Munster had drawn Clontarf into a war of attrition and the northsiders were showing they didn't mind life in the trenches.

In fact, Clontarf found hitherto untapped reserves. They began to ruck cleanly, yet unforgivingly. Colm Power, Dave Moore and Riaan Vorster cleared the decks and Sean Fitsimons, not for the first time, was breaking the gain line through a crowded midfield. All this forced a penalty in the 80th minute and Richie Murphy banged over the winner.

"In the first-half, we had enough ball to win three games." said John `Paco' Fitzgerald. "There were too many turnovers after that. We weren't surprised by them. I mean Henry Hurley, Bernard Jackman and Pat Ward are all good forwards. There was no lack of effort. We just didn't turn our domination into scores. It was as simple as that.'

Scoring Sequence: 4 mins - R Murphy pen 3-0; 39 mins - A O'Halloran pen 3-3 (half time); 80 mins - R Murphy pen 6-3.

Clontarf: M Woods; D McElligott, M Smith, S Fitsimons, O Winchester; R Murphy, S Berti; H Hurley, B Jackman, P McQuillan; R Vorster, C Power; C Brownlie, P Ward, D Moore. Replacements: T Kearns for McQuillan 72 mins.

Young Munster: M Lynch; D O'Dowd, R Larkin, S McCahill, N O'Meara; A O'Haloran, D Tobin; D Clohessy, M Hayes, P Clohessy; M O'Halloran, D O'Meara; B Buckley, G Earls, P Webber. Replacements: M Prendergast for Tobin (58 mins); P Boland for N O'Meara (71 mins).

Referee: R McDonnell, MRA.