The much anticipated meeting of Leinster and Munster ended in a 24-19 victory for the home in a game that although producing very little classic rugby was nevertheless nothing short of enthralling from start to finish.

And at that finish in added time it was the home side who were clinging on for a victory that just minutes earlier had looked safely in the bag as they led by 12 points following Johnny Sexton's seventh successive penalty in the 61st minute.

Ronan O'Gara's first miss of the evening came shortly after Sexton's strike and left Munster needing tries to salvage something. The first came courtesy of a penalty try with less than three minutes of normal time remaining and then, when Leinster failed to manage a keep-ball exercise, O'Gara kicked for the line to offer his side one last gasp opportunity.

Clean off the top line-out ball hushed the massive home support and Tomas O'Leary, a 63rd minute replacement for Conor Murray, produced his trademark linebreak but his offload went forward and Munster were left with just the consolation of a losing bonus point.

Not much consolation whatsoever was the sight of Keith Earls departing the scene in the first minute with a knee injury that rules him out of this month's Heineken Cup games, Earls picked up the injury in a tackle as he ran back Sexton's kick off. He'll have a scan today to determine the exact extent of the damage.

If defence was the dominant aspect on the ground, the airwaves were the preserve of referee Pascal Gauzere's whistle, the Frenchman blowing shrill and often. His strict adherence to the rulebook led to any hope of continuity but did allow both Sexton and O'Gara up their kicking stats.

Sexton went seven from seven while O'Gara was four from five. Sexton's would probably have been eight from eight only for Rob Kearney's well struck 56th minute drop-goal when Monsieur Gauzere was playing advantage.

Munster trailed 15-9 at the break though it might have been worse except for a superb cover tackle from Lifeimi Mafi. That came at the start of the second quarter when Leinster had numbers on the left but Mike Ross, with Luke Fitzgerald on his outside, went for glory only to be minced by Mafi.

That was Leinster's clearest chance of a try and their next came in the second half when Isa Nacewa, stretched backwards to take a pass only to be bundled into touch at the corner flag by three Munster defenders.

It looked ominous for Munster once Leinster had moved into that 24-12 lead but the Munster response was encouraging and afterwards Tony McGahan when asked for the positives responded, "how we finished the game, our fitness levels. Our scrum was good and we showed plenty of character and skill to get ourselves back into the position we were in right at the end."

Munster: J Murphy; D Howlett, W Chambers, L Mafi, K Earls; R O'Gara, C Murray; W du Preez, D Varley, BJ Botha; D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell (capt), D Ryan, N Ronan, D Leamy. Replacements: D Barnes for Earls (2), P O'Mahony for Ronan, J Coughlan for O'Callaghan (both 52), T O'Leary for Murray (63), I Keatley for Murphy (75 mins), M Horan for du Preez (73), J Hayes for Botha (78). Not used: D Fogarty.

Leinster: R Kearney; I Nacewa, F McFadden, G D'Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, I Boss; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross, L Cullen (capt), D Toner, S O'Brien, S Jennings, J Heaslip. Replacements: H van der Merwe for Healy (55), E Reddan for Boss (58), R Ruddock for Jennings (63), J Hagan for Ross, K McLaughlin for Toner, E O'Malley for D'Arcy (all 73). Not used: S Cronin, I Madigan

Referee : Pascal Gauzere (FFR).