And most of them went home happy. Munster, maybe, had a tinge of disappointment for not taking a bonus point to secure a home draw in the quarter finals; but Quins glad of some signs that they have the ability to pull themselves away from the bottom of the Premiership.

Munster wing Anthony Horgan and outstanding flanker Denis Leamy both touched down in the first half with Harlequins old boy Paul Burke adding a conversion and two penalties.

But despite winning the bulk of the possession they made errors – like the one by Leamy that gifted Ugo Monye an interception try, while Andy Dunne slotted a conversion and penalty to keep Quins in touch.

Quins dug in against the run of play and only trailed 12-10 at the interval after some dogged defensive work.

Dunne’s second minute penalty had got them on the board and they might have led at the break but for his two costly misses after 10 and 12 minutes.

Munster’s forwards, though, produced a steady stream of possession and they battered away at the line before Alan Quinlan’s agile handling to send Horgan over on the left with Burke converting.

But they couldn’t reproduce that continuity consistently and the frustration contributed to the risky pass from Leamy that Monye intercepted just before the half-hour.

The England Sevens flier anticipated the move, broke a tackle and scorched 80 metres to score under the posts and make Dunne’s conversion a formality.

Quins were on the back foot after that for long spells as Munster turned down kickable penalty chances in their search for a try before the break.

They did so against 10 men after hooker Ace Tiatia was sin-binned by French referee Joel Jutge for coming round the wrong side of a ruck.

Munster took advantage in stoppage time when they surged towards the left-hand corner with Leamy making up for his earlier error by driving through Monye to score.

Burke added a penalty 10 minutes into the second-half as it became apparent that just winning the game was going to be hard enough for the 2000 and 2002 finalists.

He added another after 66 minutes from 40 metres to open up an eight point gap but that was the last score as both sides made mistakes trying to force the pace in the closing stages.

If anything, NEC Harlequins finished more strongly, something that will cheer coach Mark Evans as he contemplates a long relegation battle ahead in the Zurich Premiership.