The champions of 13 years ago will now meet Edinburgh Rugby in the last four at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on Saturday, 28 April (kick-off: 5.45pm) after a momentous quarter-final battle against their Irish rivals.

At one point in the first half, Munster had trailed by 19-0 and yet they set about reducing the gap with the sort of fierce determination that had got them over the line in the now famous Miracle Match against Gloucester Rugby seasons ago. However, Ulster stood firm with Ruan Pienaar kicking four vital penalties, and deservedly went one better than last season when they bowed out at the quarter-final stage.

The first ever meeting of the two Irish clubs in the tournament began in breathtaking fashion as both sets of players moved the ball around with real confidence. Ulster had the benefit of a strong breeze but out half Ian Humphreys looked determined to keep possession in hand.

With BJ Botha packing down against his old teammates, the Munster scrum was dominant in the opening stages, however, French referee, Romain Poite, thought otherwise and penalised the home team at the set piece around halfway and Pienaar struck a superb long-range kick to give Ulster a 3-0 lead.

A combination of a light drizzle the gusting wind was making conditions tricky, and Poite wasn’t endearing himself to the Munster faithful as he awarded another penalty this time for offside. Once again, Pienaar slotted the goal with the aid of the elements and Ulster led 6-0 after 10 minutes.

Then when Craig Gilroy was put into space more than 50 metres out there didn’t appear to be any great danger, yet Munster somehow managed to fall off three attempted tackles and the young wing lunged for the line for a magnificent solo try which Pienaar converted to make it 13-0.

Munster had barely recovered from Gilroy’s stunning score when they were penalised again and from almost exactly the same spot as he’d landed his two earlier kicks, Pienaar found the target once more to give Ulster an unexpected 16-0 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

The response from the two-time tournament champions was as fierce as it was predictable and suddenly Ulster found themselves defending desperately in the own 22 as the red tide poured forward. But Munster couldn’t make a five metre line-out count and then Ronan O’Gara uncharacteristically overcooked a cross-kick to the unmarked Denis Hurley.

After weathering the storm, Ulster hit back when Ian Humphreys dropped a sumptuous goal from 35 metres to incredibly put the visitors 19-0 in front. It was the sort of Heineken Cup contest that if you looked away for a second you might miss something special, and if Munster were rattled, they didn’t show it as some crisp passing put Simon Zebo clear and the wing, who scored three tries against Northampton Saints in Round 6, finished expertly.

O’Gara knocked over the difficult conversion to further reduce the gap, and to the sound of close to 25,000 ironic cheers, referee Poite awarded Munster a penalty and even though the kick was a good 45 metres into the breeze, O’Gara’s attempt crept over the bar to make it 10-19 at the break.

The question as the second half got under way with the prize over a semi-final at the Aviva Stadium against Edinburgh Rugby at stake was whether Munster could make home advantage count and close the nine point gap or whether Ulster had the composure to hold off an anticipated 40 minutes of pressure.

With the breeze still a factor and with the intermittent drizzle making handling problematic at times, Munster were soon looking to O’Gara to put them into the right areas of the pitch, but surprisingly the out half mis-hit an albeit difficult penalty chance early in the half.

Within minutes, a bullocking run by No 8 James Coughlan led to Ulster killing the ball deep in their own 22 and this time O’Gara found the range to make it 13-19. Although Ulster were now having to deal with a Munster onslaught, their defence with Stephen Ferris outstanding was holding firm.

As the red jerseys came on strong, the tempo of what had been a lung-busting first half appeared to increase if anything. On one of the infrequent occasions that Ulster found some territory, the ice-cool Pienaar stepped up to kick yet another gloriously struck penalty, but the South African’s effort was soon cancelled out by O’Gara who popped over an easier opportunity to make it 22-16 going into the vital final quarter.

Munster coach, Tony McGahan, sent Donncha O’Callaghan and Damien Varley, and then Tomas O’Leary and David Wallace, into the fray for the big push to the finish as Paul O’Connell began to menacingly carry the ball, but despite being pinned much of the time in their own half, Ulster’s resilience was magnificent.

Humphreys was tantalisingly wide with another drop goal attempt as the clock ticked down, and crucially Munster were penalised once more by Poite for going over the top at a ruck, but this time Pienaar’s kick drifted outside the post.

In the end it didn’t matter, and Ulster held out for a famous victory.