Ian Keatley held his nerve to bisect the posts five minutes from time and deny Benetton Treviso a third successive GUINNESS PRO12 victory.
The Italian side, sitting at the foot of the GUINNESS PRO12 table, have turned a corner in recent weeks and led throughout at Stadio Monigo.
Robert Barbieri crossed and full-back Jayden Hayward kept the scoreboard ticking along from the tee.
But Munster have not given up hope of securing a top-four finish and two penalties from Keatley in the final 12 minutes took the game away from Treviso.
There was little sign of what was to come when Munster made the initial breakthrough on 13 minutes. The maul drove to the line and, just as it looked as though they would be held up by the Treviso defence, the ball was worked to Gerhard van den Heever out wide who went over. Keatley though saw his conversion drift wide.
But Treviso hit back on 27 minutes when No8 Barbieri bundled his way over. Hayward added the extras to put his side in front.
That's the way it stood at half-time to leave Munster contemplating a third consecutive GUINNESS PRO12 defeat for the first time since 2013.
Hayward extended Treviso's advantage on 52 minutes with a successful penalty after an offside.
Munster were level on 58 minutes. Centre Francis Saili chased down the loose ball from Andrew Conway's kick forwards, burst ahead of the chasing defenders and crossed. Keatley saw his conversion attempt caught in the wind though.
Hayward again put Treviso in front with a 64th-minute penalty, but Munster kept cool and Keatley soon had them on level terms.
With five minutes remaining Munster took the lead for the first time in the match, Keatley successful with the penalty.
With three minutes to go though Dave Kilcoyne was shown a yellow card and, with a man advantage, Treviso piled on the pressure.
But after several phases of play taking us two minutes into additional time a knock on sealed their fate and earned Munster a much-needed victory.
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