The victory saw the province keep pace with Conference A leaders Glasgow Warriors, bonus-point winners over Ulster on Friday. With two rounds to play and the first-placed side at the end of the season qualifying for a home semi-final, Glasgow retained their three-point lead over Munster, who are 16 points clear of both Cardiff and Connacht, who play their round-19 game at Zebre on Saturday evening.

While still looking to earn top spot and claim that home semi, van Graan also needs to manage his squad carefully with tough remaining league games in Treviso next Friday and Connacht at home on April 27, either side of a Heineken Champions Cup semi-final against Saracens in Coventry on April 20.

Wing Keith Earls was a late withdrawal before kick-off while lock Jean Kleyn limped off in the second half and captain Peter O’Mahony was removed from the field on 77 minutes having earlier received treatment on the pitch as Munster comfortably played out the final stages of the game with 14 men.

“It’s been a physical few weeks, a few knocks and bruises,” van Graan said. “Earlsy before the game pulled up with a tight few muscles in his leg so we decided not to risk anything.

“So a few guys will get a well-earned break now. It was pretty important that we get the win, make sure we qualify for the PRO14 play-offs, make sure we qualify for Europe next season and beat a well-drilled side called Cardiff.

“They thumped us the previous time in Cardiff and five points I’ll take.”

“A few guys will have a breather. A few guys have played a few weeks in a row now so we’ll manage the squad.

“Certain guys will go away according to our Irish player welfare system, certain guys will go to HPC (Munster’s High Performance Centre in Limerick) training, certain guys will get opportunities in Treviso and the most important thing is what we’ve said all year, that weekends like next week, you’ve got to back your squad, a massive challenge against Treviso away, they’ve thumped a lot of sides there and they’re playing good rugby so a big challenge for us but first, enjoy this one, enjoy the weekend.

“There are some tired bodies in there and I said to the players fair play for their commitment and their attitude, especially after a European quarter-final, to come back and play against such a quality team like Cardiff and get five points, it’s good for the squad.”

Munster had been beaten 37-13 at Cardiff Arms Park in round four and went 7-0 down after just six minutes in Cork as Ray Lee-Lo made a strong break in midfield and Tomos Williams caught the home defence napping with the opening try.

Converted tries from Chris Farrell and Kleyn nudged Munster in front before Cardiff responded through Aled Summerhill just before the break, the home side taking a 17-14 half-time lead.

The Welsh side were good value for the 21-19 they took soon after the interval through Lee-Lo’s converted try but Munster, aided by a strong bench, moved through the gears and a 49th-minute try from CJ Stander, less than five minutes after being introduced, set the ball rolling.

Conor Murray dotted down for the bonus-point try on the hour and Andrew Conway added a fifth on 65 minutes, fly-half Tyler Bleyendaal converting all five tries before being withdrawn on 67 minutes, after which JJ Hanhrahan nailed a difficult touchline conversion in pouring rain when fellow replacement Sammy Arnold had grabbed the sixth and final try on his return from a 13-week injury lay-off..

“Very happy with that win, very happy with that bonus point as well,” van Graan said. “Cardiff is a very good team and we knew that this was going to be tough, especially on the back of the European quarter-final. They had the extra week’s rest and we played them on a 4G (artificial pitch) which they’re used to, so obviously one or two things we can work on but to put 40 points on Cardiff on a Friday night, I’ll take any day of the week.”