Matt Williams side produced a superb victory, scooping the four try bonus point just shortly after the start of the second half, stunning Munster and some 26,000 supporters in a sold out Thomond Park.

First half tries from Paddy Wallace, Darren Cave and Mark McCrea, an early substitute for winger Timoci Nagusa who limped off the field after just 14 minutes with a hamstring injury, helped Ulster to a 22-6 lead at half-time beforeTom Court went over from close-range on 46 minutes to bag the bonus point.

Munster, who saw out-half Ronan O'Gara retire shortly after Nagusa, also with a hamstring injury and then lost influential centre Rua Tipoki at half-time, replied with an unconverted Doug Howlett score on 64 minutes after Paul Warick kicked to the corner, but never looked like closing the gap that a composed Ulster had built up after a superb first 40 minutes forcing the European Champions into uncharacteristic errors. Ulster's victory was well and truely beyond doubt by the time Andrew Trimble got on the end of Ian Humphreys' kick to space and beat Howltett to the line for the score.

Ulster played a short period in the scond half with just 13 men after lock Matt McCullough was yellow carded along with Munster prop Federico Pucciariello for an off-the-ball incident, followed shortly after by captain Kieron Dawson for a professional foul.

Ulster out-half Ian Humphreys, for whom Thomond Park has been a happy hunting ground to date, last winning their with Leicester in the Heineken Cup two seasons ago, was the Magners League Man of the Match, controlling the game and notching up a personal tally of 12 points.

Ulster Coach Matt Williams was delighted with his side's performance;

"Munster are a great team and a great organisation, but it was just our day," "And because Munster is such a great team, it makes our win that good.

"What we really wanted to do today was come into his great rugby city, and play with pride. I thought we did play with pride and with passion and we played with the ball-in-hand too, which I was really pleased with."

"To just do it in one game doesn't make us a champion team," cautioned Williams.
"Munster do it year after year after year - that's what makes them a champion side. We've done it for a couple of weeks. We're nowhere near in that part of the world yet."

Ulster's five point wins pushes them up to 7th in the Magners League table, just one point below Edinburgh who they face this coming week at Murrayfield before returning to Ravenhill on Saturday 17th January to take on Harlequins in the penultimate pool game of the Heineken Cup.

Munster: D Hurley; D Howlett, R Tipoki, L Mafi, K Lewis; R O'Gara capt, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll; D Ryan, N Ronan, N Williams. Replacements: D Fogarty, T Ryan, J Coughlan, A Quinlan, M Prendergast, P Warwick, B Murphy.

Ulster: C Schifcoske; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, T Nagusa; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, N Brady, BJ Botha, M McCullough, E O'Donoghue, S Ferris, K Dawson (capt), R Diack. Replacements: S Philpott, J Fitzpatrick, F Paulo, D Pollock, P Marshall, P Steinmetz, B Cunningham

Referee: Alan Lewis