They're still not flowing like honey but the fires burned strong enough for Munster to turn around a patchy first half-hour or so and with it a deficit of 13-3 against vengeful opponents. While rarely scaling their customary heights, they did so largely by dint of their pack and especially their line-out maul, and the boot of Ronan O'Gara.
The win elevates Munster to second in Pool B on nine points. Behind them is a four-way tie on six points which now includes Newport and Connacht after a fine treble by Irish provinces last night.
On a breezy but pleasant autumnal evening, an expectant Musgrave Park crowd of about 4,000 went home reasonably well satisfied with their night's entertainment and most of all the outcome. Newport were far, far quicker into their groove and while in their first-half ascendancy applied better high-tempo continuity than Munster would manage all night.
Although the enduringly excellent Anthony Foley was invariably in the thick of things, his high, close-in workrate proving particularly important in these exchanges. He made the big tackles that gradually turned the tide and also scored both Munster tries.
All in all it was hard work getting over the winning line. Despite the lift of a second-minute O'Gara penalty it was Newport who were quicker into their stride. Looking better gelled and more up for it, they quickly had their close-in target runners coming onto the ball from deep with unerring timing as they laid up a silver salver service for Dale Burn.
Munster couldn't establish any rhythm, Peter Stringer untypically throwing out a loose pass and fumbling at the base, while the referee was regularly finding fault with them at the breakdown, not to mention the scrums as well. From a rash of four penalty attempts inside 10 minutes, Jason Strange landed two of them before the flurry went the other way though no great improvement in Munster's play save for some offensive tackling - as evidenced by the Foley-Alan Quinlan turnover double tackle on Rod Snow.
However, O'Gara missed three penalties in a row and after Andy Marinos had cut through the Munster midfield and Foley had brilliantly held up Dale Burn from a close-range tap, from the ensuing scrum Newport attacked out wide for Burn to brilliantly take a low inside pass from their impressive young playmaker Jason Strange to plunge over. Strange converted.
This was the cue for the Munster pack to heat things up, and with Mick Galwey leading from the front and opting for close-range line-outs, a sharp drive off the captain's take ended with Foley getting the touchdown and O'Gara converting on half-time.
Within five minutes of the restart Galwey did well to regather an overthrow at the tail. From the recycle Foley sped onto Stringer's deft, one-handed reverse pass to cut through from the 22 like a knife through butter and again O'Gara converted.
Despite another Strange penalty, the Munster pack bossed the remainder of the game, the line-out providing the platform for fierce pressure which saw Matt Pini binned for a sequence of professional fouls and O'Gara land four penalties in a row. Munster were helped by a huge impact performance by Paul O'Connell and Chris Anthony's injury-time try didn't matter.
Scoring sequence: 2 mins O'Gara pen 3-0; 8 mins Strange pen 3-3; 16 mins Strange pen 3-6; 34 mins Burn try, Strange con 3-13; 40 mins Sheahan try, O'Gara con 10-13; 45 mins Foley try, O'Gara con 17-13; 48 mins Strange pen 17-16; 57 mins O'Gara pen 20-16; 60 mins O'Gara pen 23-16; 65 mins O'Gara pen 26-16; 81 mins O'Gara pen 29-16; 83 mins Anthony try 29-21.
MUNSTER: D Crotty; J O'Neill, J Kelly, J Holland, A Horgan; R O'Gara, P Stringer; P Clohessy, F Sheahan, J Hayes, M Galwey (capt), M O'Driscoll, A Quinlan, A Foley, D Wallace. Replacements: M Mullins for O'Neill (24 mins), P O'Connell for O'Driscoll (58 mins), J Williams for Foley (71 mins).
NEWPORT: E Lewis; M Mostyn, A Marinos, J Pritchard, M Watkins; J Strange, D Burn; R Snow, J Richards, A Garvey, S Raiwalui (capt), M Voyle, P Buxton, A Powell, G Gravell. Replacements: M Pini for Pritchard (44 mins), S Howarth for Strange, C Anthony for Snow, G Taylor for Voyle (all 78 mins), P Young for Richards (82 mins).
Referee: I Ramage (Scotland).
