GREGOR TOWNSEND'S vastly understrength side were deprived of victory by a late penalty at Thomond Park as Munster maintained their strong start to the season with a 23-21.
It was always going to be a tough task for the champions with 21 players away on World Cup duty against the side who they defeated in last year’s final, with the Irish outfit missing only five internationals.
On-loan out-half Rory Clegg looked to have snatched victory when he crowned another fine display with a drop-goal five minutes from time to edge Warriors a point in front.
But there was still time for Munster to respond and they chalked up their eleventh successive home win when Ian Keatley kept his nerve to steer home a 35-metre penalty two minutes from time.
It was rough justice on a Warriors side who did well to stay in contention during an opening half where Munster held the upper hand, having maintained an edge in the scrum from the outset.
It took the intervention of the television match official to stop Glasgow falling behind after 24 minutes when a try from winger Gerhard van den Heever was ruled out when a knock-on in the build-up from lock Mark Chisholm was spotted.
But the reprieve was short-lived and, after flanker Tyrone Holmes was binned, Munster hit the front when they went to the corner with a penalty and, on the third surge, Dave O’Callaghan got over.
Ian Keatley, who had earlier cancelled the opening penalty from Clegg, landed the conversion to push Munster 10-3 in front.
The Glasgow response was impressive. They kept the ball in hand and built the phases and forced penalties, with a couple of kicks from Clegg cutting the gap to a point before Keatley landed one from distance to lead 13-9 at the break.
Glasgow enjoyed their best spell of the game in the third quarter. Clegg cut the gap after 51 minutes and two more successful kicks saw the champions lead 18-13 going into the final quarter.
Munster reverted to the type of possession game which has served them so well over the years and a 20-phase move ended with former Springbok World Cup winning prop BJ Botha touching down 13 minutes from the end. Keatley’s conversion made it 20-18.
Again, the response from Warriors was brave and Clegg pushed them back in front with a drop-goal from 20 metres five minutes from time but a fifth win in six meetings with Munster was thwarted when denied them when Keatley landed the winner.
Munster: F Jones (S Monahan 38); A Conway, D Johnston, T Bleyendaal (R Scannell 70), G van den Heever; I Keatley, D Williams (C Sheridan 56); J Cronin (D Kilcoyne 57), D Casey (M Sherry 46), S Archer (BJ Botha 51); M Chisholm (R Copeland 57), D Foley; D O’Callaghan, J O’Donoghue, CJ Stander.
Tries: O’Callaghan, Botha; Cons: Keatley (2); Pens: Keatley (3)
Glasgow: R Hughes; J Bulumakau, H Blake, F Lyle, L Jones; R Clegg, G Hart (M Blair 64); A Allan (J Yanuyanutawa 70), P MacArthur (F Scott 73), D Rae (Z Ferguson 29); R Harley, S Cummings (K Low 57); T Holmes (J Eddie 64), C Fusaro (G Hunter 77), A Ashe.
Pens: Clegg (6); Drop goal: Clegg
Referee: B Whitehouse (WRU).
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