Today was another great Heineken Cup day for Munster, who played Toulouse off the pitch at Thomond Park today to mark one of their greatest triumphs in the history of this great competition.

It was achieved, by the way, against a quality side who never gave up the dream of becoming the first French side to win at this famous ground.

They gave it their best shot for sure, but ran up against a brick walled Munster defence who seized on mistakes and created a huge array of chances to put the game to bed entering the final quarter. Six tries to two tells a big part of the story.

Munster won the toss and elected to play against the wind, clearly favouring to defend first and putting it up to the visitors.

First and second blood to Munster as skipper Peter O'Mahony took a lineout against the head and Toulouse were penalised trying to recover.

There was another line out steal after that, and a further penalty led to a sustained four minutes of pressure as Munster went through 22 phases before Simon Zebo's long pass gave Keith Earls the space to dive in at the corner for a magnificent try that was a credit to the team rather than individuals.

Ian Keatley converted brilliantly from the touchline, but Munster showed their darker side from the re-start when they conceded a penalty to Luke McAlister and then failed to make the required ten metres from the kick off, giving the visitors an attacking scrum.

It put unnecessary pressure back on them.

They survived that blip before coming back strongly again and they were rewarded with a second penalty from Keatley in 15 minutes.

Although Munster suffered a blow with the loss of O'Mahony, they continued to challenge the visitors. Conor Murray was held up over the line and an attacking scrum yielded a penalty for Keatley who duly converted to stretch the lead out to 13-3 in the 22nd minute.

Toulouse grew into the game off the back of Munster mistakes.

McAlister knocked over his second penalty with a great strike from 47 metres after 29 minutes and the out-half kicked another three minutes later when Munster stupidly turned over possession inside their own half when awarded a free kick.

When Munster were pinged for dropping a scrum, McAlister cut the gap to just four.

Munster could have stretched into a bigger lead with a late first-half assault, only for Casey Laulala to waste a great try-scoring opportunity by attempting to offload a couple of metres out when to go to ground and retain possession was clearly the wiser move.

It ended with a Munster knock on and allowed Toulouse off the hook before the break.

What couldn't happen before the interval did two minutes into the second period when a powerful Munster maul ended with Dave Kilcoyne nipping in after Conor Murray's initial surge came up short and Keatley converted for a 20-9 lead.

Zebo and James Coughlan had to be sharp to stop Yoann Huget at the other end but Munster survived and then prospered from a Toulouse turnover, Keith Earls hacking downfield to force another lineout.

From there, CJ Stander put the finishing touches to another rolling maul and Keatley added the extras to push the advantage out to 18 points at 27-9.

Keatley missed a long-range penalty in 51 minutes and they were hurt a couple of minutes later when Toulouse scored a spectacular try from Hosea Gear which substitute Lionel Beauxis converted.

But Munster found renewed levels of energy after Keatley got another penalty to stretch the lead to 30-16 and Laulala made up for his first-half mistake when he scored a brilliant try off a Toulouse mistake.

A well beaten Toulouse fell apart from there even if Joe Tekori and Beauxis combined to give them a seven pointed on 71 minutes to make it 35-22.

Simon Zebo got Munster's fifth try and on full-time, the workaholic Paul O'Connell crashed over at the posts with Keatley converting for a massive but fully deserved 47-23 win that undoubtedly marked this display out as the best of Munster's season.

Onwards and upwards for Munster; if they play like this against either Leinster or Toulon in the semis, they're well in with a shout.

Munster: F Jones, K Earls, C Laulala, J Downey, S Zebo, I Keatley, C Murray, D Kilcoyne, D Varley, BJ Botha, D Foley, P O'Connell, P O'Mahony, J Coughlan, T O'Donnell

Replacements: CJ Stander for O'Mahony (19,) D Casey for Varley (56), D O'Callaghan for Foley (61), JJ Hanrahan for Downey (66), G Van den Heever for Earls (67), D Williams for Murray, J Ryan for Botha (both 76), A Cotter for Kilcoyne (79) Temporary, J Ryan for Kilcoyne (49-59)

Toulouse: M Medard, Y Huget, F Fritz, G Fickou, H Gear, L McAlister, J Vermaak, G Steenkamp, C Tolofua, J Montes, Y Maestri, P Albacete (captain), Y Camara, L Picamoles, J Tekori.

Replacements: J Bregvadze for Tolofua (46), R Millo-chlusky for Maestri (50), L Beauxis for McAlister (52), G Gilan for Picamoles (60), Temporary, J-M Doussain for Fritz (61-69).

Referee. N Owens (Wales).

[comment] By Barry Coughlan[/comment]