Munster's forwards came to the Irish province's rescue by producing a superb second-half performance that saw off the Celtic League challenge of visitors Newport.

Tries from Anthony Foley and Mick Galwey kept Munster moving forward until fly-half Ronan O'Gara put a poor first half with the boot behind him to collect 19 points.

O'Gara had started well enough by striking a penalty in the first minute, but Jason Strange, playing in place of Shane Howarth, levelled the scores soon after when Munster infringed.

Newport attempted to keep the ball in hand in with a strong wind in their faces, but any mistake was seized upon by Munster to allow O'Gara to punt the ball deep into the Welshmen's half.

Munster continued to have problems referee Ian Ramage's interpretation of the rules and continued to give away a stream of penalties.

Forwards Galwey and Alan Quinlan started the fightback for Munster, rampaging into the Newport defence and setting up phase after phase.

The penalties were starting to flow the home side's way as Munster turned the screw, but O'Gara was having a horrible time with the boot and missed three easy chances in a row.

Munster tried to get their gameplan moving but Newport's tacklers were not only fierce in defence but quickly up on their opponents, hurrying the Irishmen.

Munster wing John O'Neill limped off midway through the first half to be replaced by veteran Ireland international Mike Mullins.

With half-time approaching Newport rumbled towards the Munster line from a lineout and only desperate defence prevented scrum-half Dale Burn touching down.

But from the resulting five-metre scrum a fine move saw Burn get his just rewards. With Munster focussing their attention on Andy Marinos, who had been creating havoc in midfield, Strange flicked the ball back inside for skipper Simon Raiwalui.

The Fijian lock galloped through the gap and off-loaded to Burn, who made sure he was at his captain's shoulder like a good scrum-half should be. Strange thumped the conversion over to make it 13-3 to the visitors.