But the Heineken Cup champions, short of 10 their first-choice players due to Ireland's autumn Tests, leaked a crucial 76th-minute try from Joe Rokocoko that got the tourists out of jail.

Henry said: "Our team are young guys and it was a good experience for them, very good for their rugby development. To be under that kind of pressure (and win) is immense for them.

"They will have learned a lot playing in that kind of atmosphere. I haven't been in an atmosphere like that very often."

A capacity crowd of 26,500 thronged the Thomond Park stands and terraces to witness this much-anticipated match and the pre-match build-up was worth the ticket price alone.

Munster included four New Zealanders in their squad and Doug Howlett, Rua Tipoki, Lifeimi Mafi and Jeremy Manning threw down the gauntlet by performing their own four-man haka before the All Blacks could respond.

"It shows the spirit of the Munster team and the geographic area it represents. It was a nice to have a win but I think the occasion was more important," Henry admitted.

"I think we played a lot of the rugby. We tried to be constructive most of the time. It was a very young inexperienced All Black side.

"It was one of those games where we just had to hang in and hope we could score a winning try. But we had opportunities."

Munster coach Tony McGahan and captain for the night Mick O'Driscoll will take whatever positives they can from the game, but O'Driscoll, in particular, was hard to console.

"We possibly deserved more from the game. To lose by two points to probably the best side in the world with 10 or 11 of our players missing, you would probably take it," O'Driscoll said.

"We were playing New Zealand so you don't need anyone to tell you who you are playing. It is a privilege to play New Zealand.

"You don't need any more inspiration to play these boys. We came so close but yet so far. Certainly for fat lugs like me you don't know what is going on all the time.

"All you remember at the end of the day is the result and we were beaten."

McGahan hailed the efforts of his players, especially considering they have not played since losing to Ulster in the Magners League on October 24 and a warm-up match with Harlequins 'A' was cancelled.

"The guys should keep the result and be immensely proud of the way they played," he said.

"We were still in it until the 60th or 70th minute but you could see how tired the lads were. We were holding onto that (16-13) lead but just couldn't hold on long enough."

Meanwhile, New Zealand number eight Liam Messam was full of praise for the 'awesome' Thomond Park experience, which saw the home fans in full voice throughout.

The Chiefs forward was a deserving winner of the man-of-the-match award, crowning his 80-minute performance with some inspirational carries in the second half.

Speaking afterwards, the 24-year-old said: "It was an awesome experience just to be a part of it and it's great to have got the final try to sneak a win at the end.

"The crowd were great, they were really loud all through the game. It was great for us to experience an atmosphere like that."