French champions Perpignan outscored Munster by three tries to nil at Thomond Park, but still lost by a point as their ill-discipline allowed Ronan O'Gara to kick the Irish to victory.

The Catalans will be absolutely gutted not to have come away with the win, and how they will be sick of the sound of referee Wayne Barnes' whistle. Time after time they were penalized by the Englishman - at the breakdown, in the scrum, in open play... seemingly anywhere and everywhere - and O'Gara could even afford three misses in addition to his seven penalty successes (and a nifty left-footed drop-goal).

The 'what ifs' could go on for weeks as Perpignan's players ponder how they lost despite tries from Yoann Vivalda, Nicolas Durand and Phil Burger, but they will have to pick themselves up and  ready themselves for battle once more when Munster visit the Stade Aimé Giral next Sunday. They did at least get a defensive bonus, but it could have been so much more. Victory in Limerick would also have gone a long way towards erasing the horror of their round one defeat to Benetton Treviso. But, it was not to be.

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The Top 14 champions had gone into the match with a back-row injury crisis robbing them of half a dozen options, but Vivalda's quick reactions to spilt lineout ball enabled the 21-year-old flanker to gather and run-in for a memorable try in the corner after just five minutes play. O'Gara had already kicked a simple penalty, but Perpignan's opportunism stunned the red army, both on the pitch and in the stands.

Jérôme Porical missed the ensuing conversion, and Munster were soon back in the lead when O'Gara's second penalty success made it 6-5 after 10 minutes. But Perpignan were not done yet, and they caused further consternation when scrum-half Nicolas Durand touched down just two minutes later. Again the score stemmed from a lineout, although Perpignan won it this time with Robins Tchale Watchou feeding hooker Guilhem Guirado to break through before passing to Durand, who sidestepped Doug Howlett and screamed over. Two tries in the opening 12 minutes, and this time Porical added the extras to make it 6-12 to the visitors.

The Irish responded with plenty of possession, but penalties always seemed their most likely method of scoring as they failed to breach Top 14's meanest defence. O'Gara duly landed two more to leave it all square 12-12 at half-time and intriguingly poised.

Home domination continued after the break, with Perpignan happy to soak up pressure and try and hit Munster on the break, or on their rare forays forward. But with pressure came the ref's whistle, and the home side had edged 21-15 ahead by 63 minutes with O'Gara slipping in a drop-goal to add to another brace of penalties.

Two minutes later David Mele - on as a replacement for Durand - kicked a penalty in reply with his first touch of the game, before substitute Phil Burger made an even more dramatic entrance as he sped on to claim a Munster kick and then raced 70m to claim the try of the evening. Suddenly Perpignan were 21-23 ahead with 11 minutes remaining, but Mele crucially missed the conversion.

With so much time still to play it was inevitable what would happen next, and sure enough O'Gara found himself with yet another penalty opportunity after Bertrand Guiry's high tackle in front of the posts on 73 minutes. The resultant kick proved the difference, with O'Gara able to silence a few critics to boot as he claimed all 24 points for the hosts. It proved a close-run thing, but Munster just did enough in the end, with Perpignan left channel their frustrations into next week's return fixture.

In the other Heineken Cup match on Friday night Glasgow Warriors beat Gloucester 33-11 in Pool 2, with Dan Parks kicking seven penalties and a conversion. Gloucester actually scored the first try of the evening when Charlie Sharples went over in the 22nd minute, but Glasgow hit back with scores from Max Evans and Bernardo Stortoni in the 32nd and 37th minutes.