Conor Murray came off the bench to score a try to keep Munster in touch at halftime and then landed a monster penalty from inside his own half to give the Irish province a 19-17 victory over Cheetahs in the PRO14 in South Africa.

Munster were down and out before the Six Nations Grand Slam winner came on for the injured James Hart. At that stage, Munster were 14-0 down and it could have been worse but for poor handling.

Clayton Blommetjies got the Cheetahs off to a perfect start inside 11 minutes after Teboho Mohoje won the ball in the lineout and when the ball was spread wide, captain Francois Venter delayed the pass, before giving it to Blommetjies to score.

It got worse as Simon Zebo was win-binned as Cheetahs looked to drive home their advantage. Although they botched the advantage, after a wasteful kick through was caught for a mark and Munster cleared.

It was short-lived however when Blommetjies sniped off the back of a ruck and drawing the defender, he fed Tian Meyer who ran in to score for a 14-0 lead.

Munster could have got back into it after the half hour with a five metre scrum but Robin Copeland knocked on at the back and Cheetahs escaped. But from the scrum, the returning Johan Goosen took his eye off the ball inside the dead ball area, and knocked the ball on.

Hart was replaced by Murray and off the back of the scrum, Murray took and although stopped the momentum took him over as JJ Hanrahan converted.

Goosen's penalty pushed the Cheetahs further clear, but Hanrahan converted three penalties to close the gap to just two points.

And after the Cheetahs infringed in the lineout, up stepped Murray to kick a penalty from 15 metres in from the touchline, a metre or two inside his own half. With the same quality he showed during the Six Nations, he split the posts to see Munster to victory.