Glasgow Warriors inflicted a first RaboDirect PRO12 home defeat of the season on Munster, helping their own play-off hopes in the process with a 22-5 victory at Thomond Park.

The Warriors shocked their hosts with three tries in the first-half to build up a commanding 22-5 lead as Jonny Gray, Sean Maitland and Josh Strauss all went over, cancelling out CJ Stander’s reply.

And that is how the game stayed in the second 40 as despite constant pressure from the hosts, Glasgow held on for the famous win – their fourth straight in the RaboDirect PRO12.

The Warriors got off to the perfect start after just four minutes as after Munster were penalised for not rolling away the visitors kicked to the corner. And the plan worked perfectly as a maul from the following line out saw Gray barge his way over.

Duncan Weir added the extras and he was on target again on seven minutes, this time a penalty sailing through the uprights after John Ryan was pinged for not rolling away.

Munster then dominated the next ten minutes but couldn’t find a way to the tryline, a chip through going dead and then a brilliant turnover allowing Chris Cusiter to clear the Glasgow lines.

However the home side’s pressure told and Stander went over out wide to halve the deficit with the conversion attempt missing.

But five minutes later Glasgow extended their lead and again Munster were their own worst enemies.

The hosts were again penalised at the breakdown – this time for offside – and the Warriors opt for another line out.

They spread the ball out wide and the move ended up with a try for Maitland, the Kiwi touching down in corner after skipping past a couple of tackles.

Weir missed the touchline conversion but he was on target as Glasgow grabbed their third try of the half after Strauss had touched down following a scrum.

Trailing 22-5 at half-time Munster tried their best to get back into the game after the interval but found Glasgow Warriors in no mood to budge.

And Glasgow even almost extended their lead as Gordon Reid found a gap and offloaded the ball only for the Warriors to be held up over the line.

For the final half hour it was all Munster and they game close to a try on several occasions, no more so on 53 minutes only for Conor Murray to drop the ball at the vital moment.

However they simply couldn’t find a much-needed score and despite battering on the door Glasgow held firm for an important victory in their own RaboDirect PRO12 play-off chase.

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