No doubt about it. Young Munster deservedly reached their seventh Carling Munster Senior Cup final in eight years at Musgrave Park on Saturday. But they did have a little help from their friends in UCC.

On a hard ground and with the sun shining, one would have expected a bit more from the students. Adventure they had in abundance but they made many more mistakes than they could have dreamed about.

Against a background where they found possession hard to come by that was just too much. Additionally, they scorned penalty opportunities before and after the break and Young Munster thus cruised easily into another decider against old rivals Shannon.

To be fair, Young Munster would probably have won anyway. All that was really in doubt was the margin of victory. The Limerick side won most of the line-outs and they dominated the scrums. When the try scoring chances were presented they took them. After a bright start from the students, Young Munster scored a breakaway try in the third minute courtesy of winger Niall McNamara, Stephen Tuohy converted and then added a penalty for a 10 point lead inside eight minutes.

College did grab a try from Donncha Murphy but were unable to claw their way back. Declan Edwards scored the second Young Munster try and Tuohy added two penalties to leave it 21-5 at the break.

College were boosted with a try after just one minute of the second half from Hugh O'Neill but they didn't have the forward platform to build on it. It stayed 21-10 until five minutes from the end when David Walsh went in for Young Munster's third try and in injury time Tuohy wrapped it up with a fourth try which he converted himself.