Rusty Munster rely on O'Gara's trusty boot

Not a great match, by any stretch, but a great win as wins go. Physically, Ulster threw the kitchen sink at a rusty Munster for more than an hour and with a Ravenhill crowd of 10,000 really into it were hammering away at the visitors' line at 16-12. Munster had to dig really deep then, but as we know nobody digs deeper.

A hard-earned turnover and a monster touch find by O'Gara from his own line to inside the Ulster half relieved the siege. Munster went into a huddle or two, gathered themselves, monopolised the territorial stakes and moved Ronan O'Gara into three-point territory. The cool-as-cucumber young Corkman duly delivered with his fifth penalty out of five and a couple of drop goals.

That it came on the opening night of the Guinness Interprovincials after the most emotionally draining season imaginable and following the departure of Keith Wood and Eddie Halvey underlines this lot's character and mental strength. That it meant so much to them was highlighted by the delighted celebrations at a suddenly hushed venue, where they hadn't won in 21 years. Yet another bogey laid.

They all picked their performances levels up in the final quarter, the back row of Alan Quinlan, Anthony Foley and David Wallace most notably after a tough night at the office.

A turning point was the 62nd minute introduction of John Hayes, and with Peter Clohessy reverting to his loose head role, the Munster scrum not only stopped creaking but made Ulster's creak. The old warhorses Mick Galwey and Clohessy deserve special mention too, as undoubtedly does the accurate O'Gara.

While O'Gara was the matchwinner, Andy Ward was still a deserving man-of-the-match. A clear message from this game was that he is back. Aside from his excellent all-round work-rate, Ward came up with more big plays than anybody. Russell Nelson worked well in tandem with him, and likewise the polished Brad Free and Ryan Constable looked like good acquisitions.

Ulster's tackling was better and they were the more penetrative side, especially out wide where the lively Tyrone Howe and James Topping were always threatening, but as in this fixture last year Ulster at times looked as if they couldn't buy one of their own line-outs. And then their scrum buckled too. That was just too much baggage.

There were far too many turnovers for it to be a vintage game and the watching Irish coach Warren Gatland bemoaned the "aimless kicking". The fringing and spoiling of ruck also contributed to the game hardly reaching third phase all night long.

But it's usually thus on opening day, the jitters worsened by the importance of the match. "Because both sides know each other so well it gets harder to break down sides," said Munster coach Declan Kidney. "We made a number of turnovers and we're going to have to look at how we break sides down," he conceded.

He and the Munster brains trust will well know this won't be good enough every time. Part of their problem is that Wood was, amongst many other things, one of their primary gamebreakers. With him gone Ulster focused their attentions on Mike Mullins, who was launched at an impenetrable white wall as the Ulster midfield defence said no all night long.

That was the pattern of the game for the opening 30 minutes and more, O'Gara kicking three penalties to one by David Humphreys before Ward took centre stage moving into injury time.

Fee looped onto Constable's pass and offloaded in the tackle, Johnny Bell's quick transfer enabling Tyrone Howe to knife through the defence. From a laboured recycle Constable checked the defence by feinting to take a drop goal, giving Ward a two on two. The New Zealander had already produced a try-saving tackle on David Wallace, and this time hinted at an inside pass to Topping on the switch before accelerating through Wallace and Horgan for a try.

Humphreys converted and the outhalf's 54th-minute penalty in response to O'Gara's fourth was also down to Ward stealing a second Ulster restart of the night. When a big shove by Munster yielded another Humphreys penalty nearing the hour, it seemed like a turning point.

But when the going gets tough, the tough get going. With John Hayes on, Ulster's scrum buckled for O'Gara to make it 16-15. Then, knowing their scoring limitations on the night by this stage, a clinical two phase move - the line-out maul before Wallace ensured a quick recycle off Mullins' charge up the middle - gave O'Gara room for a drop goal.

John Kelly had a try disallowed for a marginal but correctly-called offside from Jason Holland's kick on, but Munster stayed in the Ulster half and big rumbles by Galwey, Clohessy and Quinlan, with the Munster pack driving on, enabled O'Gara to seal it in injury time.

"I was concerned that we might panic," admitted a slightly breathless Kidney. "If we panicked we were gone. But we didn't panic. I can only praise the mental strength of the players, especially when coming back from last season."

ULSTER: G Henderson; J Topping, R Constable, J Bell, T Howe; D Humphreys (capt), B Free; J Fitzpatrick, R Weir, C Boyd, P Johns, G Longwell, R Nelson, T McWhirter, A Ward. Replacements (temporary): D Topping for Nelson (8-12 mins).

MUNSTER: D Crotty; J Kelly, M Mullins, J Holland, A Horgan; R O'Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, F Sheahan, P Clohessy, M Galwey (capt), J Langford, A Quinlan, A Foley, D Wallace. Replacements: M Horan for Hayes (62 mins); J Staunton for Crotty (79 mins).

Referee: A Lewis (IRFU).