No Heineken Cup semi-final involving Munster – and this was the last – will ever go quietly, particularly in France, but this one will not be remembered as one of their classics. They were spirited, never say die, all those things as always. Toulon, though, were just very, very powerful. And they had this guy called Jonny Wilkinson who swept up all the smithereens and built something substantial from them with his left boot. We've seen that before, as well.

So Munster and the Heineken Cup go their separate ways at last. We saw – and heard – echoes of the province who more than any other participants helped turn this tournament into the vehicle for passion and drama it has become, but this was a notch or two down on the Richter scale from previous heroics. Still, to pull back from the position they found themselves in at half-time to within two points of Toulon with the best part of half an hour to play was testament to those virtues of yore – and to a fair sprinkling of wit. Theirs was the only try of the day after all, and mighty well taken it was too.

Likewise, to be pushing hard to overturn a five-point deficit as the game entered its last five minutes was redolent of what we know of them too, roared on of course by a delirious travelling support. There was Paul O'Connell in the heart of it – Donncha O'Callaghan, too – but Casey Laulala spilled the ball as they edged closer, and Toulon were able to play the game out at the other end.

If Saracens want a new standard to measure their ruthlessness against and the physical prowess they have cultivated of late, they may just meet it in Cardiff in four weeks' time. Toulon are no one's idea of a flair team – at least, it's not their first recourse – but if a good pummelling is what you want to test yourself by, there are few more obliging.

They enjoyed around a 2:1 advantage over Munster in the stands, and on the field it appeared there was a similar sort of balance on the power quotient. Toulon are capable of playing a bit, but they like to save that for when the opposition are starting to wheeze, when the scoreline has tilted sufficiently in their favour. By half-time they were well on the way to establishing just such a tipping point.

They are a couple of second-rows down, at the moment but who cares about that when Danie Rossouw lurks in the wings. He was the principal enforcer up front, with Mathieu Bastareaud looking after things behind, and Munster endured a rare old pummelling from the off. It was from a two-punch combination, one delivered by Bastareaud, Rossouw the other, that the first points arose. Wilkinson landed them from an angled 45 yards in the fifth minute. Munster settled in for a long afternoon.

They kept in touch, usually on the back of incisive work from Conor Murray and his two wingers. Juan Fernández Lobbe helped out by seeing yellow for an ugly, if more clumsy than malicious, knee to the head of Murray, but by the time he was eligible to return it was half-time and Toulon held an 18-9 lead – 2:1 you might say. There didn't seem any way into the game for Munster at that point. They seemed subdued.

Toulon weren't exactly rampant. Without Wilkinson's legendary accuracy from the tee, knocking goals over from all angles, most of them beyond the 40-yard mark, they wouldn't have enjoyed that cushion. And Delon Armitage stepped up to bang one over from near the touchline in his own half, getting on for 60 metres away from the goal. These penalties – and referee Wayne Barnes fairly clobbered Munster in that first half – were not the result of stretching Munster to breaking point. They came more from a constant barrage of body blows.

It looked as if Toulon had finally found fourth gear at the start of the second half, though, when Armitage put his brother Steffon over in the corner, following two searing Bryan Habana breaks. But Steffon's toe clipped the line in the tackle of Simon Zebo. No try.

That was when Munster somehow found the wherewithal to mount one of their famous comebacks. A driving maul they set up in the Toulon 22 seemed to have been splintered by Toulon's formidable maulers, but Murray broke blind and put away Zebo, who managed to score through the tackles of Drew Mitchell and Steffon Armitage.

Belief, if not quite enough muscle or nous, sparked throughout Munster. Ian Keatley had a long shot to gain the lead just before the hour, which he missed, but life became harder again when Keith Earls took out David Smith, as the latter latched on to a spilled Munster pass. Earls saw yellow; Wilkinson racked up another three.

The hope for those in red continued to burn, right up till Laulala's error just as destiny awaited. It was finally snuffed out when Wilkinson landed penalty number six, the eighth successful kick of Toulon's day, a minute before the final whistle. No romantic end for Munster, then.

There may yet be one for Wilkinson, but Toulon do not look the romantic kind.

Saracens beware.

Toulon D Armitage; Mitchell, Bastareaud, Giteau, Habana (D Smith 49); Wilkinson (capt), Tillous-Borde (Claassens 63); Chiocci (Menini 56), Burden (Orioli 59), Hayman (Castrogiovanni 76), Rossouw (Mikautadze 63), Suta (Bruni 80), J Smith, Lobbe, S Armitage

Pens Wilkinson (6), D Armitage Drop goals Wilkinson.

Sin bin Lobbe 29.

Munster Jones (Hurley 73); Earls, Laulala, Downey (Hanrahan 65), Zebo; Keatley, Murray; Kilcoyne (Cronin 66), Varley (capt; Casey 77), Botha, Foley (O'Callaghan 66), O'Connell, Stander, Dougall (O'Donnell 56), Coughlan

Try Zebo Pens Keatley (3) Conversion Keatley. Sin bin Earls 63.

Referee Wayne Barnes (England). Attendance 37,043.