Munster recorded their second win in two matches in this season's RaboDirect Pro12 when they defeated Italian side Benetton Treviso 19-6 at home.
Former All Black wing Doug Howlett scored the only try of the match for the hosts and fly-half Ian Keatley weighed in with a conversion and four penalties. Treviso's Alberto di Bernardo landed two penalties for their points, one in each half.
It was Treviso who drew first blood when Di Bernardo kicked a penalty to make it 3-0, but the lead didn't last long and the Munster captain Howlett went in under the posts before the 10-minute mark following a move from a line-out. Keatley kicked the easy conversion and he added three more points when the Italians were penalised for coming in from the side of a ruck on 14 minutes.
He then made the score 13-3 when the Treviso scrum was penalised on 24 minutes and further Italian ill-discipline was punished on the half-hour mark with yet another penalty from the former Connacht fly-half who took the half-time margin to 13 points.
Treviso brought on the experience of Fabio Semenzato at scrum-half in place of Luca Morisi at the start of the second half but it was the home side who started the stronger with Howlett making a searing break from the acting fly-half position. His inside pass to Keatley didn't stick though and a try-scoring chance went begging. Munster added a further three points shortly afterwards though when Alberto Sgarbi was penalised for hands in the ruck.
Di Bernardo added a second penalty for the Italians, but by then Munster had put the result well out of sight and the biggest cheer of the night came when veteran scrum-half Peter Stringer came on for Duncan Williams in the 67th minute.