Munster 31, Bath 9: Bath's Heineken Cup hopes were dealt a severe blow as they were comprehensively beaten by Group Four favourites Munster.

The Irish province had never been beaten at Thomond Park in the history of the competition and any hopes Bath had of breaking that proud record faded away in a ten-minute capitulation at the end of the second half.

That period yielded 17 points for the home side as they took complete control in front of a passionate crowd.

Bath, who lined up with two changes to the team beaten at Newport, weathered ten minutes of early pressure and took the lead with a penalty from fly-half Jon Preston after Gareth Cooper's driving run had been illegally halted.

Munster flanker Alan Quinlan was then ordered to the sin-bin but Bath failed to take advantage of the extra man. Indeed, during this spell, outside-half Ronan O'Gara levelled the scores when Bath strayed off-side in midfield.

A tight 20 minutes ensued, with Bath winning plenty of ball courtesy of Steve Borthwick in the line-out.

However, it was Munster who went in front at the interval via a second O'Gara penalty after an incident that saw Bath hooker Mark Regan yellow-carded for stamping.

It took the home team just four minutes to crack the 14-man Bath defence with an excellent score.

Fantastic forward play from veterans Peter Clohessy and Mick Galwey saw O'Gara and Dominic Crotty combine to send winger Anthony Horgan scooting over in the corner.

The return of Regan coincided with Bath's best spell of the match, which culminated in Preston cutting the gap with a second penalty.

This seemed to galvanise Bath and Mike Tindall went close after a Preston up-and-under before O'Gara and Preston exchanged penalties to leave the match delicately poised at 14-9 with ten minutes remaining.

What followed was a ten minute blitz of Munster rugby at its best and Bath failed to come to terms with their pace and power.

The decisive moment came when Phil De Glanville fumbled a pass he wasn't expecting and was forced to carry the ball over his own line.

From the resultant scrum, Jason Holland took a crash ball up the middle from Anthony Foley's break and gave flanker David Wallace space to burst under the posts.

O'Gara added the conversion and four minutes later snuffed out any hopes of a comeback with a close-range drop goal.

Bath went for broke but Munster showed a ruthless edge to kill off the 1998 champions.

They secured a famous victory with a third try in the final minute as Peter Stringer and O'Gara put Horgan over for his second try.

O'Gara's conversion completed a disappointing day for Bath and ensured that next week's return clash is a must-win situation for Jon Callard's men if they are to have any chance of progressing.