The British and Irish defending champions travelled to Plymouth for an opening round B&I Cup tie and came away with a 26-22 victory thanks to tries from Corey Hircock and Ian Nagle, and the boot of JJ Hanrahan.
It was a mixed day of results following the earlier Heineken Cup defeat for the senior side but the next generation of Munster players claimed an impressive victory away to English Championship side Plymouth Albion.
First half scores included two tries from academy player Corey Hircock and one from Ian Nagle who made his first appearance for Munster this season after returning from shoulder injury.
Albion opened with all the pressure and opted to play penalty chances rather than take the points and an impressive Munster defence denied the homeside from claiming any return.
On the turnover Munster attacked from the get go with Hanrahan finding the space and releasing the backline with Hircock at the end of the opening score, JJ missed the convert.
Munster were awarded a penalty after the restart and took a quick tap and go running the ball wide before Hircock touched down for his second try, with JJ adding the essentials to give Munster a 12 point lead.
The visitors were reduced to 14 men with Nagle binned and Albion's Roberts kicked the penatly to get his side on the board.
Hanrahan responded with his own penalty chance after 25 minutes to give Munster a 15-3 scoreline.
The homeside reduced the margin when fullback Henry Slade was deemed the try scorer after a number of hands got to Paul Roberts grubber kick.
Ian Nagle marked his return to action with a well worked try straight from the training ground, as he went over in the corner after finding himself at the end of a Scott Deasy cross field kick.
The half was closed out with another Albion comeback after making the yards with a strong maul, second row Brett Beukeboom scored their second try to give a halftime score of Plymouth Albion 15 Munster 20.
On the return Albion lost Beukeboom to the bin for an intentional block and JJ kicked the penalty to move Munster ahead.
Corey thought he did enough to claim the hat-trick but was pulled back for a forward pass from Felix Jones.
Hanrahan added his third penalty before Albion mounted a final attack and Carpenter scored with Roberts kicking the conversion to give a final score of Plymouth 22 Munster 26.
Postives from the Munster camp included returns for Felix Jones and Ian Nagle, and an impressive showing from centre JJ Hanrahan.
Next up for the B&I Cup side is Aberavon RFC in Tralee RFC on Saturday October 20th, ko1pm. The Welsh side suffered an opening defeat to Rotherham Titans today, losing 21-25 at home.
Munster: Felix Jones; Ronan O'Mahony, Cian Bohane, JJ Hanrahan, Corey Hircock; Scott Deasy, Duncan Williams (C Sheridan 60"); John Ryan, Sean Henry Capt (D Casey 60"), Alan Cotter (C Condon h/t, A Cotter 70"); Brian Hayes, Ian Nagle (P Donnellan 65"); Shane Buckley, Barry O'Mahony, Sean Rennison. Replacements: Duncan Casey, Christy Condon, Philip Donnellan, Cathal O’Flaherty, Brian O’Hara, Cathal Sheridan, Richie Mullane.
