REVENGE is a dish Munster are always keen to serve, but they couldn't quite stumble upon the required recipe in Limerick yesterday. Beaten 32-10 by Glasgow back in September, Declan Kidney's side would have been more than keen to make amends for their heaviest defeat of the season but instead they fell to their first defeat at Thomond Park since the visit of Llanelli in October 2004. They don't like losing here and despite being heavily understrength, this defeat will still bite.

Not only were Munster without their Irish eight, they also appeared to be lacking their match sharpness having not played a competitive game in three full weeks.

Their defence, in particular, appeared disjointed and the number of missed tackles was wholly unusual.

Barry Murphy, once more, was the Munster player who caught the eye but quiet performances from both Donncha O'Callaghan and Mick O'Driscoll hardly advanced their chances of starting for Ireland next week. Anthony Foley, too, was relatively subdued on a day when most of what Munster tried failed to come off. And all this despite a bright opening.

Foley's early try was simple stuff. Following a right to left spin across the backline, Frankie Roche and Stephen Keogh made a couple of breaks around the fringes and the Munster captain was on his back-row's shoulder to round off the move. Those five points only succeeded in masking Munster's sluggish start though, as Glasgow upped the pace. The Scots like to move the ball from touchline to touchline and their downfall often comes from the fact that they do little more than that.

On seven minutes, however, out-half Colin Gregor decided to run straight for a change and it caught Anthony Horgan and Shaun Payne among others on the hop.

When the number 10 was finally tackled, Sam Pinder was on his shoulder to finish off the move. Lovely stuff from Glasgow. Gregor added the conversion and on 13 minutes the same player landed a penalty in front of the posts.

At this stage Munster appeared lethargic, sloppy even and a host of knock-ons and missed tackles bore witness to that. Those mistakes were robbing the home side of any kind of momentum so they decided to tighten things up, going back to basics almost. It certainly appeared to work, for their second try at least.

An O'Callaghan drive wide left set the tone and after Shaun Payne set up a beautiful position near the line after a daring break, Foley and O'Driscoll had a snipe before Stephen Keogh burrowed his way over to level.

The visitors retook the lead on 40 minutes thanks to a second Gregor penalty but then came the move of the match, initiated by Barry Murphy. The young Ireland 'A' centre made a scintillating break past Spencer Davy and Graeme Morrison in midfield, before offloading to John Kelly. The winger then found Anthony Horgan over his lefthand shoulder for a superbly executed try.

Nothing basic about that effort.

Lawlor added the conversion to give Munster a scarcely deserved 17-13 half-time lead but things turned around quickly after the break. Gregor kicked a penalty to narrow the gap to one on 44 minutes and barely 90 seconds later a swift move involving Steve Swindall, Mike Roberts and Rory Lamont was finished off by the supporting run of Gregor.

Another beautifully conceived Glasgow effort.

The out-half, by now the star of the show, added the conversion and his penalty on 51 minutes gave the visitors a nine-point advantage.

It was beginning to look worrying for Munster, particularly when Horgan failed to spot Murphy on his shoulder for what would have been a simple run in, but Lawlor put Munster within striking distance with a 71st minute penalty. There were now just six points between the sides but despite a couple of concerted attacks by Munster, Glasgow held firm. Only a harsh man would have said they didn't deserve it.

MUNSTER S Payne; J Kelly, B Murphy, T Halstead, A Horgan; M Lawlor, T O'Leary; F Roche, D Fogarty, F Pucciariello, D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll, S Keogh, J O'Connor, A Foley (c) Subs J O'Sullivan for O'Connor, 52mins; G Connolly for Halstead, 82mins Scorers Foley, Keogh, Murphy try; Lawlor con, pen

GLASGOW R Lamont; H O'Hare, D Davy, G Morrison, M Roberts; C Gregor, S Pinder; K Tkachuk, F Thomson, E Murray, D Turner, C Hamilton, S Swindall, J Petrie (c), G Haytor Subs S Lawson for Thomson, h/t; S Corsar for Haytor, 60mins; G Staniforth for Morrison, 62mins; L Harrison for Murray, 73mins Sin-bin Roberts 75 Scorers Gregor try, 2 cons, 4 pens; Pinder try;

Referee N Owens (Wales)