European Cup winning coach Declan Kidney left Munster in the summer of 2008 to take over as Ireland boss and Tony McGahan was installed in Kidney's stead to great success.
Andy Robinson excelled as Edinburgh coach, guiding the Scots to their highest-ever finish, while Ospreys and Leinster showed their enduring class at the top of the table to round out the top four.
With an average of 3.9 tries per game, it was the second lowest scoring edition of the Celtic League but, in a Lions year, the tournament's quality was underlined by 32 of 45 touring players - including captain O'Connell - plying their trade in the competition.
Early Winners:
McGahan's men faced a trip to Edinburgh on opening weekend to square off against a side packed with Scottish internationals and rejuvenated under Robinson. But O'Connell, Doug Howlett, Donncha O'Callaghan and a young Keith Earls were all exceptional as they battled to a 20-15 win.
Earls ran in a hat-trick and Howlett a brace in the next round as they routed Newport Gwent Dragons 50-6 and further emphasised their title credentials.
They went on to win their next three before coming up against an Ulster side that had lost four of their opening five fixtures, including a 43-0 thrashing by the Ospreys at Liberty Stadium.
Ulster endured a torrid season under former Scotland coach Matt Williams, winning only seven games, two of which came against Munster, and finishing eighth. But when Munster arrived at Ravenhill in round six, Fijian flyer Timoci Nagusa ran in two first-half tries and Isaac Boss a third for a comfortable 22-6 win.
Munster fell to Irish opposition again in weeks eight and nine - three of their four league losses came to their countrymen, the other to Cardiff Blues - going down to Connacht 12-6 at the Sportsground before Ulster cranked up the pressure on their provincial rivals with tries from Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave and Tom Court in a 37-11 win at Thomond Park.
And it was two-time champions Ospreys who took advantage of the slip in Munster's form. A busy festive period saw Steve Holley's side emerge victorious from two Welsh derbies in the space of five days to top the Celtic League at the turn of the year.
Mike Phillips returned from knee surgery to seal a 20-6 home victory over the Scarlets before exceptional Kiwi Marty Holah turned in another match-winning shift against the Blues on New Year's Eve.
The run-in:
Tomas O'Leary - who would only miss out on a summer Lions spot because of a broken ankle sustained later in the season - had been magnificent for Munster throughout the opening half of the season and he stepped up again when McGahan's side travelled to Liberty Stadium for a top-of-the-table clash with Holley's Ospreys.
Lifeimi Mafi had squeezed in the corner for Munster's opening try, but Ospreys fought back through James Hook's superb kicking and Sonny Parker's strong shift in the centre.
A Parker break had sent Jonny Vaughton careering through Mafi and towards the Munster line, only for O'Leary to save a certain try by bundling the winger into touch.
O'Leary then scored Munster's second try before, with a fully-fledged outside-half injury crisis in motion, the scrum-half had to step in at fly-half and kick a penalty for a crucial 25-21 win.
This win broke the back of the Osprey's challenge and O'Leary's performance could be deemed league as well as match-winning.
McGahan's side would not lose again until the title was clinched on April 30 as the Ospreys failed to secure a bonus point win over the Dragons.
Robinson had succeeded in turning Edinburgh from eighth-placed finishers in 2007 to fourth place in 2008, but they sealed what was, until Glasgow Warriors' triumph in 2015, the best finish of any Scottish team since the Celtic League's advent in 2001.
The English World Cup winning assistant coach guided Edinburgh to seven wins out of nine on the back straight, losing only away to Munster and Scarlets.
Jim Hamilton's score and Phil Godman's nerveless touchline conversion took Robinson's men past Ospreys with two games remaining and laid the foundation for a fantastic season's end for the Scotsmen.
Final Day:
The title was done and dusted when Munster - dethroned as European Champions in the semi-finals to Leinster two weeks earlier - faced Ospreys at Thomond Park on the final day.
But Robinson's side had to beat the Blues at Cardiff City Stadium and were relying on Munster to do the business in front of their home fans if they wanted to secure second-place, as well as Dragons defeating Leinster at Rodney Parade.
Munster were unlikely to let Ospreys ruin their coronation party as they had the Blues in round 17 and after a tense first half, O'Connell's men cut loose with 19 points and standout back-rower Wallace scored twice for the hosts, cementing their place as the league's best and showing the form that took them to a 12-point league win.
Meanwhile in Cardiff, the Blues raced out to a 14-3 half-time lead through Nicky Robinson and Chris Czekaj tries and looked set to repeat the previous week's heroics against the flying Scotsmen.
Edinburgh though, were made of sterner stuff. A penalty try was followed swiftly by a Ben Cairns try to put the Scots ahead five minutes after the break before Nick De Luca crossed twice and Phil Godman dotted down to claim a bonus-point win and confirm an historic second-place.
The Top Scorers:
Munster did not have anyone inside the top five league points scorers and it was the remarkable Felipe Contepomi, alongside Hook, who bagged the biggest hauls with 161.
Edinburgh's Chris Paterson was just two points behind on 159 and Ian Keatley, then of Connacht, was fourth with the ever-reliable Dan Parks rounding off the top five with a tally of 117.
Parks' clubmate Thom Evans topped the try-scoring table with nine for Glasgow and Earls - whose performances for Munster earned him a Lions call-up - finished in joint second with Connacht's Fionn Carr on eight tries, while Edinburgh's Cairns finished on seven alongside Leinster's Luke Fitzgerald.
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