Nicky English looks a little taken aback by the stress-free progress Tipperary have made through the afternoon. A year ago Limerick nearly shocked them in a Munster final but there nothing shocking about yesterday except the comfort of it all.

"We knew in training that we had improved from the Clare match and John Carroll was back. There was probably more pressure on Limerick this year. Everyone was expecting a big game from them after last year.

"There was more pressure on us last year because we hadn't won anything in three years and we hadn't progression. It showed today because we were more relaxed and confident and played with a kind of abandon."

Abandonment rather than abandon is the key mood in Limerick's dressing-room. Manager Eamonn Cregan survived a major power struggle at Easter and looked like he was wondering if it had been worth the effort as he surveyed the wreckage of a flattering seven-point defeat with the All-Ireland qualifiers coming up fast in two weeks.

"There was no hunger there and as a team we failed miserably. The score is not a reflection of the control that Tipperary had over us and the way we played today we do not deserve to go into any extra round.

"I just don't know. I felt we were up for the game, but it's out there you prove it and we didn't.

"The players' job was to get the ball into the forwards as quickly as possible, but we went the scenic route. We went left, right, left, right, this way, that way, but we never got the ball in.

"Tipperary were too good for us, they just mesmerised us in the second half. I'm the manager and when a team loses the manager gets the blame. We thought we'd prepared the team properly, but on the day it would appear we didn't motivate them and the result out there - if we'd played even half as well as we can play it would have been so much closer.

"Somebody has to take responsibility and the buck stops here. I'm not going to blame the players. At the end of the day, I'm responsible.

"It's a difficult one, but we have to pick it up because that performance is not what they're capable of. Last year was what they were capable of, but a dose of reality has to come into it.

"This team will win an All-Ireland. It may not be this year, but they will. I won't be there, I'd say I won't be there, but they've got to realise that the type of hurling we played isn't good enough."

He has seen the Promised Land but will not take them there.