Montauban's Petre Mitu collected the man of the match honour © Getty Images

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Matches: Munster 19 - 17 Montauban

Tournaments/Tours: Heineken Cup | Heineken Cup

Teams: France | Ireland

Picture Gallery: Heineken Cup 2008-09 - Round 1

New coach Tony McGahan likened Munster's 19-17 Heineken Cup Pool 1 victory over Montauban to 'the great escape' as the defending champions endured a jittery night against the tournament newcomers.

The Irish province's redeveloped Thomond Park Stadium was rocked to its foundations when scrum half Petre Mitu kicked Montauban into a late 17-16 lead. The plucky French side, who were missing a host of first choice players, were on the cusp of becoming only the second team to win a European game at the famed Limerick ground - Leicester Tigers had the historic first in January 2007.

But up stepped Ronan O'Gara to spare Munster's blushes, as he held his nerve over a 78th-minute penalty to dash Montauban's hopes of a shock away win. "The scoreline certainly suggests we were lucky to get away with a win. We were lucky to get a penalty in the 78th minute," McGahan said afterwards.

"We've spoken all week about Montauban coming here with absolutely nothing to lose, that they would be looking to slow down the game. They just kept hanging in and feeding off our mistakes and in the end it was a great escape.

"We did a lot of work on them, we certainly knew they'd come to play, we knew that they would be aggressive, kick a lot...all those things. We spoke about it today. There was no surprise in anything that occurred out there this evening from them."

On a night when Munster forced play and had too many unforced errors, McGahan believed his team were not a million miles away from turning linebreaks into scores. "We weren't far away, we had ten to 12 linebreaks - most of those in the first half - and if we had converted a couple of those it may have been an easy night at the office.

"It wasn't to be. The end detail in what we're doing, the finishing wasn't there so therefore we found ourselves with time ticking away looking for a win."

The Australian bristled at a question that he might regret his suggestion earlier in the week that a bonus point was on the cards against such supposed lowly opposition. "The question was asked, 'do you think you can get five points?' Normally, I said, if we played to our ability five points would be there on offer. It's a completely different answer."

A disappointed Jerry Flannery said that Montauban deserved respect despite the" fact they left a few big name players at home. The Ireland hooker said: "We got out jail in the end. We knew they wouldn't come here to make up the numbers - that's something we talked about during the week.

"It didn''t matter what sort of a side they'd send over. We knew the media would make a big story of it, that they left their bigger names at home. It makes for a good story, maybe not giving the tournament enough respect.

"We've seen from the past when we played Clermont last season at home. They're good sides and there is no such thing as an easy game in the Heineken Cup."

Meanwhile, Montauban joint-coach Laurent Travers was left reflecting on missed opportunities as he summed up the visitors' night. "It's the 'nearly won' idea that upsets me - we could have won this. We are disappointed," he explained.

"We knew it would be difficult for us, but there was never any question that we were throwing this game. We knew we have a sound collective spirit."