Though he did not get on the scoresheet, Walsh showed maturity beyond his years in providing the final assists for both Munster goals which arrived in a game-turning three-minute spell in the second half. Other notable performances came mainly from the Cork contingent. Conor McCarthy landed a litany of important second-half points, while John Miskella, Pierce O'Neill, Fintan Gould and Graham Canty also contributed handsomely to Munster's victory.

An interesting statistic is that all Munster's scores, bar one, came from Cork players.

Leinster rapidly ran out of steam after Munster's twogoal salvo, and while looking the more cohesive outfit for long periods, they were run ragged near the end. Val Andrews' side will rue some good first half goal-scoring opportunities but Alan Quirke was also in fine form to deny Leinster goals.

Munster's most impressive first half attacker, Fintan Gould, clipped over the game's opening point after just 80 seconds, a 'Cork' move involving Kieran O'Connor and Conor McCarthy. But it was Leinster who dominated exchanges for most of the first half thanks primarily to the midfield influence of the muscular Shane Ryan and Ronan Sweeney. Twice inside the opening five minutes the visitors ghosted inside the Munster full-back line manned by such luminaries as Graham Canty and Tom O'Sullivan but the danger was somehow averted on both occasions.

The game's tempo was slow and pedantic but Leinster cradled possession better and constant pressure told as Munster were forced to concede soft frees. Dessie Dolan was bang in form to convert two frees sandwiched between an angled effort from Paul Barden.

Points from Mark Carpenter and Graham Geraghty handed Leinster a 0-5 to 0-1 cushion on the 20 minutes. It could have become a tad embarrassing for Munster only for Alan Quirke to pull off a point-blank save after Paul Barden muscled his through the centre of the home defence.

Munster's best period arrived during the next nine minutes and all of their good attacking work centred around the impressive workrate of 19-year-old Kerry prodigy Walsh. He set up John Miskella for a score before Gould tagged on two points to narrow the margin to 0-5 to 0-4 on 29 minutes.

But Leinster finished strongly with points from Niall McNamee and Dolan and restarted in equally impressive fashion when Geraghty landed a sublime outfield point followed by another Dolan free.

And in a game that seemed to lacked intensity, it momentarily lit up when Aidan O'Mahony and Geraghty stupidly got involved in a bout of fisticuffs in front of referee Gearoid O Conamha who had no option but to send both players off. Without hitting any great heights with their general play Munster . . . with all scores so far coming from their Cork representatives . . . clawed their way back to within a point of Leinster thanks to four on the trot from the influential Conor McCarthy. Leinster seemed to be pulling away adding two more points before the game's turning point arrived in the 58th and 60th minutes.

Walsh played a big part in both Munster goals laying off the final pass to Pierce O'Neill who blasted home from 13 metres to level the game.

And then the Kerry teenager knocked down an outfield ball into the path of Miskella who hammered to the net from close range. Munster grew in confidence as Leinster seemed to tire in defence, and driven on by Seamus Scanlon and O'Neill, the home side tagged on three more points before the final whistle.