Magnificent Clare one win away from All-Ireland glory

Clare 1-22 Limerick 0-18

Marvellous, marvellous Clare. The senior hurlers caused another upset in the race for the 2013 All-Ireland senior title when they overcame favourites Limerick at Croke Park and set up a final date with Cork on September 8.

There is no doubting the merit of Clare’s win over the Munster champions, a victory which has given them the chance to avenge the loss to Cork in the provincial semi-final back in June.

On that particular day, not many would have predicted that Clare would be contesting the All-Ireland final almost three months later but Davy Fitzgerald’s squad have shown steady improvement since then and no one can dispute the merit of their progress to the final.

With an unchanged team from that which put out last year’s finalists Galway in the last round. Clare took a grip on Sunday’s game from the throw-in and led throughout. Early points from half-backs, team captain Pat Donnellan and Tubber’s Patrick O’Connor, had the Bannermen two clear after five minutes and they went on to push that margin out to five by the end of the first quarter. The game’s only goal came in the thirteenth minute when a Brendan Bugler delivery caused all sorts of problems for the Limerick defence and Darach Honan managed to get the ball over the goal line.

The goal helped Clare to lead at the break by 1-10 to 0-6 and while Limerick can certainly point to missed chances from placed balls— they had twelve wides in all in the first half – Clare had much the better of the exchanges and deserved to be in front.

A Limerick comeback seemed to be on the cards when they hit the first three points of the new half but an outstanding score from Tony Kelly, along with excellent marksmanship from Colin Ryan, saw Clare nine points clear at the three-quarter stage. Limerick had replaced three of their forwards at this point but they could find no way past a magnificent Clare defence.

It was an all-round marvellous team display from Clare with David McInerney, Pat Donnellan, Patrick O’Connor, Colin Ryan, Paudge Collins and Tony Kelly particularly prominent.

Clare: Patrick Kelly; Domhnaill O’Donovan, David McInerney, Cian Dillon; Patrick O’Connor (0-1) Pat Donnellan (0-1) Captain, Brendan Bugler; Colm Galvin (0-1) Conor Ryan; Colin Ryan (0-11), 9 frees, Tony Kelly (0-4) John Conlon; Paudge Collins (0-3) Darach Honan (1-0), Conor McGrath;

Subs: Fergal Lynch for Conlon; Cathal McInerney (0-1) for Galvin; Shane O’Donnell for McGrath;

Limerick: Nicky Quaid; Stephen Walsh, Ritchie McCarthy, Tom Condon; Paudie O’Brien, Wayne McNamara, Gavin O’Mahony (0-2); Paul Browne (0-2) Donal O’Grady; David Breen (0-1); James Ryan (0-1) Seamus Hickey; Graeme Mulcahy (0-1) Declan Hannon (0-2), frees, Sean Tobin;

Subs: Conor Allis (0-1) for Hickey; Shane Dowling (0-6), all frees for Tobin; Niall Moran for Hannon; Thomas Ryan (0-1) for Allis; Kevin Downes (0-1) for Breen);

Referee:Johnnie Ryan, Tipperary;

***Full report, match analysis and interviews on this week’s Clare Champion on Thursday.