Regan King’s first half try gave Phil Davies’s side a glimmer of hope but 19 points by fly half Ronan O’Gara and tries by David Wallace and Marcus Horan put the 2006 winners top of Pool 5 in awful conditions.
O’Gara was in imperious form at a rain-soaked Stradey Park, which forced English official Wayne Barnes to stop the match for 30 seconds in the second half.
Munster started brightly and O’Gara scored two early penalties to put his side in command. Four minutes later, Wales scrum half Dwayne Peel was denied by Lifeimi Mafi’s last-ditch tackle after breaking through the Munster defence.
In the next phase of play, Barnes had no hesitation to yellow card Mafi for deliberately killing the ball. And the Scarlets took advantage thanks to 20-year-old fly half Rhys Priestland’s penalty before King scored the first try of the match on 20 minutes in the right corner after collecting Gavin Evans’s pass.
Two penalties from O’Gara put Munster back in the lead before Peter Stringer’s quickly-taken line-out allowed David Wallace to crash over. O’Gara duly converted and then kicked his fifth penalty on the stroke of half time to put Munster into a 22-10 lead.
Priestland reduced the deficit to six points with two penalties before Horan’s try after a series of powerful forward drives on 74 minutes sealed the win.
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