Despite forcing the issues for much of the final quarter, Munster were unable to conjure up a match-winning try as they were edged out by the Ospreys in a tight RaboDirect PRO12 tussle in Swansea.
Tries from Richard Fussell and Rhys Webb helped an understrength Ospreys side record a battling win over the defending league champions.
Young out-half Matthew Morgan also put over three penalties for the hosts, while Munster managed a losing bonus point with their try coming from winger Doug Howlett.
Unfortunately the former All Black sustained a suspected Achilles injury in the dying minutes of the game and had to be helped off the pitch.
The Ospreys, who have been leapfrogged at the top of the table by Leinster, were without 19 players for this Saturday night duel, including seven on duty for Wales against Australia.
Despite those absentees, the Ospreys were still able to field seven internationals in a game which pitted second against third in the standings.
Munster had the first chance to open the scoring but out-half Ian Keatley failed to find the target with penalty shots after 8 and 11 minutes.
The province’s early dominance suffered a setback when referee Peter Allan harshly sent Damien Varley to the sin-bin for some over-vigorous use of the boot at a ruck.
With the man advantage the Ospreys had their first scoring opportunity in the 19th minute, but Morgan was short with a long range penalty attempt.
From a ruck offence, the diminutive Morgan broke the deadlock three minutes later with a penalty goal from 30 metres out.
But the Ospreys had their lead cancelled out by a Keatley penalty shortly afterwards, with Simon Zebo, Donnacha Ryan and Marcus Horan, on his 200th Munster appearance, showing well for the visitors.
Restored to 15 players, the Munstermen went into the lead with a try for Howlett. Zebo scooted up the left touchline to set the province’s attack in motion and when played was switched into the middle, Will Chambers’ grubber kick deflected off Jonathan Thomas and Howlett pounced to score.
The New Zealander read the situation very well and used his pace to beat the covering Fussell to the touchdown. Keatley added the conversion for a 10-3 lead.
Despite the setback, the Ospreys reduced the Munster lead to four points with a second Morgan penalty in the 35th minute.
The defences were on top for the opening 40 minutes but the Ospreys made a dramatic start to the second half, scoring two tries in the space of five frantic minutes.
First Webb sent winger Fussell over on the left after a smart run from the influential scrum half.
There was some debate over whether Webb’s scoring pass had been knocked on by Barry Davies, but television replays showed that it was the covering Keatley who had knocked the ball back before Fussell dotted down.
Morgan missed the conversion and also failed to add the extras to Webb’s opportunist score in the 50th minute. He took a quick tap – referee Allan allowed him to take it from the wrong place – and scampered away from Tomas O’Leary and Zebo to score out wide on the right.
The two scores prompted Munster to unload their experienced bench as they sent on Lions Paul O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara, as well as Conor Murray and Wian du Preez.
O’Gara made an instant impact, putting over a penalty after 63 minutes, but that was almost immediately cancelled out by Morgan’s third successful penalty shot.
As the match moved into its business end Munster set up camp in and around the Ospreys 22. They had a series of scrums which might have led to a sin-binning for Cai Griffiths, but the home side held out and eventually won a relieving penalty.
The chance was gone for Munster and despite some game carrying from O’Connell, James Coughlan and BJ Botha, as well as an O’Gara kick to the corner which was gobbled up by Tommy Bowe, the six-point margin remained in place.
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