There is a theory in Ireland that Declan Kidney, a potential successor to Eddie O’Sullivan as the national team’s head coach, needs to display his more radical side with Munster. Hence the dropping from scrum half of a Heineken Cup icon in Peter Stringer and the disregarding of the huge European experience of Shaun Payne at full back.

After the success at Kingsholm on Saturday, Kidney shrugged off such suggestions. Where Munster are concerned, victory comes not from the individual but from the collective and here they are, in the semi-finals for the seventh time of a tournament they have made their own, even if they have won it only once. “It’s a great jersey to play in,” Paul O’Connell, the captain, said, precisely because the ethic has so seldom faltered in the way it has at international level.

This is what Gloucester aspire to and it will be fascinating to see how they respond to defeat. They lead the Guinness Premiership but looked nothing like table-toppers against the Irish province, who dominated the contact area. In O’Connell, Alan Quinlan and David Wallace they possessed players who spent long periods defending but who still determined how and where the match was played.

Dean Ryan, the Gloucester head coach, is convinced that his team are heading down the right road. “We did everything we could and they withstood it,” he said. “They have a game that is very well built for Europe. We have made a choice to try and play the game slightly differently and while we are learning, we have to live with the mistakes we make.”

Privately, Ryan will be seething at the manner in which Munster were able to manipulate the officials, who so infrequently called them for offside, but this is what successful teams do. In any case, Gloucester had a two to one advantage in penalties, of which Chris Paterson missed three, two of them in front of the posts.

For a man who could do no wrong on the international stage for Scotland this season — 33 kicks without missing — it was a calamitous fall from grace. Talented footballer though he is, Paterson was in the starting XV to kick his goals.

Munster placed their imprint on this quarter-final in the ten minutes before half-time when they found a way of nullifying a dominant Gloucester scrum and then created a try, from deep in their own 22, that in the years leading up to their 2006 triumph they would not have attempted.

Three times in swift succession Gloucester put down attacking scrums within ten metres of the opposition’s line; they drove Munster back, won a penalty, but failed to control their own ball as they marched the scrum forward again. In the middle of it all, Kidney was thinking cooly enough to replace Tony Buckley at loose-head prop with the more experienced Federico Pucciarello and yet again their defence forced errors from Gloucester when the ball went wide.

Then their centres showed their worth. Rua Tipoki and Lifeimi Mafi have brought breadth to Munster’s play and they created the space for Ian Dowling to escape down the left. The move poured forward relentlessly and when Doug Howlett popped up in midfield, he had Dowling, far from his wing, in support for a try that could go down as the team score of the tournament.

It said everything about Munster. The second try also came from ball turned over, Donncha O’Callaghan snatching possession and Howlett combining with Denis Hurley. The full back grub-kicked towards the corner, was brought down by Lesley Vainikolo in the chase, but it did not matter because Howlett won the race for the try and Kidney, his team having emerged from a pool containing London Wasps and Clermont Auvergne, can dream of reclaiming the cup they won two years ago.

Scorers: Gloucester: Penalty goal: Lamb (66min). Munster: Tries: Dowling (37), Howlett (62). Penalty goals: O'Gara 2 (16, 49).

Scoring sequence (Gloucester first): 0-3, 0-8 (half-time), 0-11, 0-16, 3-16.

Gloucester: O Morgan; C Paterson (rep: W Walker, 55), J Simpson-Daniel, A Allen (rep: M Tindall, 40), L Vainikolo; R Lamb, R Lawson (rep: GCooper, 63); N Wood (rep: A Dickinson, 63), ATitterrell (rep: J Paul, 53-59, 79), C Nieto (sin-bin, 16-26), M Bortolami (rep: W James, 53), A Brown, P Buxton (rep: G Delve, 40-41, 50), AHazell, L Narraway.

Munster: D Hurley; D Howlett, R Tipoki, L Mafi, IDowling; R O'Gara, T O'Leary; T Buckley (rep: FPucciarello, 30-67), J Flannery, J Hayes, DO'Callaghan, P O'Connell, A Quinlan, D Wallace (rep: M O'Driscoll, 79), D Leamy (rep: A Foley, 72).

Referee: N Owens (Wales).

Attendance: 16,500.

Semi-final draws

Heineken Cup

Saracens v Munster (at Ricoh Arena, Coventry)

London Irish v Toulouse (at Twickenham)

European Challenge Cup

Bath v Sale Sharks (at Recreation Ground)

Worcester Warriors v Newcastle Falcons (tba)

— Ties to be played April 25, 26, 27