And while it was the men of Munster who walked away with the famous old trophy for the first time since 1997, the three-day matches could well prove to be the foundation stone of an eagerly sought victory in next month's Home Internationals at the same venue.

Irish team captain Michael Burns and his selectors were far more than casual spectators on the pristine Baltray links this week. There are four new caps in the 11man side to represent Ireland at County Louth from September 19-21, with 35year-old Joe Lyons from Banagher in Co Offaly earning his debut alongside Paul Cutler, Cian Curley and Paul O'Hanlon thanks to a brilliant season in matchplay combat.

Victory in the West of Ireland championship at Rosses Point confirmed Lyons as a serious operator and he proved that performance was no fluke by reaching the final of the South of Ireland Championship, only losing to Dunmurry's Darren Crowe on the 18th.

Exhausted by a hectic schedule, Lyons failed to produce his best golf at Baltray as Connacht failed to build on a shock victory over defending champions Ulster on the opening day and ended up with the wooden spoon.

Pat Killeen's youthful Connacht squad took the foursomes series 3-1, but it could easily have ended up all square as Athlone's Kelan McDonagh discovered he had 15 clubs in his bag while he partnered fellow club man Ciaran O'Connor.

The Connacht pair were all square after two in their match against Ciaran McAleavey and Stephen Crowe but they were subsequently penalised with the loss of both holes.

That was before McDonagh jettisoned an "extra" two-iron in his bag on the third and the Connacht pairing went on to rack up an impressive 4 and 3 victory against the odds.

The same could be said of runners-up Leinster, who lost 4-0 to Munster in the foursomes and came up just one and a half matches short of overall victory in the end as John Carroll's side took the title on a countback . . . 22 matches to Leinster's 21.

Following Ulster's 7-6 win over Munster and Leinster's four-point victory over Connacht on day two, all four provinces went into the final series of matches with one win apiece and their title hopes still intact.

An impressive Munster team laid the foundations for their first success in the event for a decade with a superb foursomes performance against Connacht when they claimed three and a half points out of the four available to them.