Munster left themselves in pole position to qualify for the knock-out phase of this year’s Heineken Cup with a bonus point 44-7 win over Benetton Treviso in front of a packed house in the Stadio Comunale Monigo in Treviso.

And it was a victory that was as emphatic as the final scoreline suggests with Munster ahead 30-7 at the break and the bonus point secured thanks to four tries from Denis Hurley, Keith Earls, Donncha O’Callaghan and Paul Warwick.

Ronan O’Gara converted two of those tries, – the ones he missed were both from the touchline – and also added three first half penalties as well as the conversion of Earl’s second half try.

All the talk before the game was of Treviso’s home record that included defeat of Perpignan and narrow loss to Northampton Saints. In that regard Munster coach Tony McGahan insisted his side must start off well and they certainly answered that call in no uncertain manner.

In the first minue Marius Goosen blasted his penalty wide from in front of the posts and two minutes later Keith Earls carved open the Treviso defence before feeding Paul O’Connell who in turn found Denis Hurley who raced clear for the opening score.

Almost from the kick off, Munster extended their lead, this time Doug Howlett making the decisive break and Earls finishing off wide on the right.

Five minutes later, Warwicks ran a ball out of his own 22, linked with Niall Ronan who found David Wallace racing down the touchline and Wallace timed his inside pass to perfection to send O’Callghan galloping for the line.

That convesion and an O’Gara penalty had Munster 20 points to the good before the home crowd were given something to cheer about when Alessandro Zanni intercepted a Tomas O’Leary pass and bolted for the line.

O’Gara steadied Munster nerves with a 30th minute penalty and added the extras to Warwick’s well taken 33rd minute try after which Munster were forced to defend a series of close in scrums as Chris White penalised them at scrum-time.

But survive they did to go into the break leading by 23 points.

The game went through a fairly turgid period in the third quarter as Munster went about the business of containing the expected Treviso response after coach Franco Smith’s no doubt fairly coulourful half time address.

Jean de Villiers turned provider for Keith Earls’ try in the 63rd minute and replacement James Coughlan ate up the ground in a break that led to Donncha Ryan scoring Munster’s sixth try with Warwick adding the conversion.

Munster: P Warwick; D Howlett, K Earls, J De Villiers, D Hurley (I Dowling 65); R O’Gara (L Mafi 64), T O’Leary (P Stringer 60); W Du Preez(J Brugnaut 72) , D Fogarty (D Varley 64), J Hayes (T Buckley 72), D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, A Quinlan (D Ryan 60), N Ronan, D Wallace (J Coughlan h-t)

Treviso: L McLean, A Vilk, A Sgarbi, G Garcia, B De Jager, M Goosen (T Botes 47), S Picone,M Rizzo (A Allori 54), L Ghiraldini (D Vidal), I-F Rouyet (P Di Santo 54), A Pavanello (E Pavanello 74), C Van Zyl, B Vermaak, A Zanni, D Kingi

Referee: C White