Munster 19 London Wasps 3: Wasps mauled in the Munster bearpit

Dallaglio's European champions crash out, the latest visitors to fall victim to the intimidating atmosphere in Limerick

The times they are a changing. Munster, the former champions who regard the Heineken Cup as their holy grail, last night ended the reign of Wasps, the defending champions, after winning a war of attrition.

Twelve months ago the Irish province lost to Leicester here, their first defeat in the Heineken Cup on a ground that is regarded as almost sacred. So important is the venue to their cause that, incredibly, they staged the match here even though the ground is in the process of being rebuilt. They are nowhere near completion.

In short, they played one of the biggest matches in Europe at a building site. How on earth they got a safety certificate is anybody's guess. As it was, 99.9 per cent of the spectators had to stand on exposed terraces – and it bucketed it down.

Not, of course, that they were complaining. Munster took a gamble in playing the match here and it paid off handsomely as they stormed into the quarter-finals courtesy of the Thomond Park factor. It has been described as a bearpit but even an old grisly would find the arenaintimidating.

Wasps knew what was coming their way but they still succumbed by a goal and four penalties to a penalty, Ronan O'Gara scoring 14 points through his boot and he also created the game's only try, which was scored by Denis Leamy.

Wasps' early tactic was to take on the Munster pack with a series of driving mauls and they were soon rewarded with a penalty. In difficult conditions, and from about 40 yards, Danny Cipriani kicked the goal.

Munster drew level after 10 minutes when a Wasps line-out ended in chaos and a couple of their threequarters drifted offside. O'Gara also produced a well-struck penalty to make the score 3-3.

In the first really incisive move of the match, Wasps came desperately close to a stunning try. Their forwards won an important battle for possession in midfield and slick work gave David Doherty room on the right. Doherty, who came in as a replacement for Paul Sackey, raced down the touchline before kicking ahead and, as the ball rolled over the line, the wing was just beaten to the touchdown by O'Gara. There was only inches in it.

Cipriani, with another long-range penalty, was just wide. The action hotted up between the warring packs. Tempers became frayed when Phil Vickery sat on the leg of Leamy. After a flurry of fighting, the captains Lawrence Dallaglio and O'Gara were spoken to by the referee. Within minutes Leamy was shown a yellow card for playing the ball on the ground but, in the flanker's absence, Wasps were unable to exploit their numerical superiority.

No sooner had Leamy returned from the sin-bin than he was followed to the cooler by the Wasps lock Simon Shaw. Munster were attempting to run a tap penalty and Shaw was guilty of obstruction. From the penalty O'Gara made no mistake to give his side a 6-3 lead.

It was certainly not Shaw's night. Having returned to the fray in the second half, the giant England lock appeared to have badly damaged an ankle as he lost a line-out close to his own line. Play was halted while the stricken Shaw was tended to on the touchline and before he was taken off by stretcher both Anthony Foley and O'Gara went over to commiserate with him.

That was about all the sympathy the visitors would get as Munster crucially began to win the 50-50 skirmishes for possession. As the pressure on Wasps was mounting, and when the Munster forwards set up a series of drives towards their line, Dallaglio was sent to the sin-bin for killing the ball, presenting O'Gara with his easiest kick at goal yet and he duly landed his fourth penalty to give Munster a nine-point lead.

Things went from bad to worse for Wasps, who could not build any momentum as Munster frequently set up promising field positions as the conditions deteriorated.

In the 34th minute Munster scored the first try of the match and an excellent one it was. After their forwards had battered and fought their way to within yards of the Wasps line, a rare gap opened up when O'Gara sold a dummy and put Leamy into space and nobody could stop the flanker, who surged over from close range.

O'Gara's conversion maintained hit immaculate kicking form as Wasps were forced to accept defeat.

Munster: S Payne; B Carney, R Tipoki, L Mafi, D Howlett; R O'Gara (capt), P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery (F Sheahan, 80), J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll, D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley (A Quinlan, 75).

Wasps: J Lewsey; D Doherty, F Waters, R Hoadley, D Waldouck (R Webber, 60); D Cipriani, E Reddan; T Payne, R Ibanez (J Ward, 77), P Vickery, S Shaw (T Palmer, 47), G Skivington, J Haskell, T Rees, L Dallaglio (capt).

Referee: N Owens (Wales).