Clare 4-12 Limerick 1-16: THE OLDEST story in the ancient game of hurling is that goals win matches. Clare added to that lore in progressing to their first Munster final of the century, and as it turned out they needed four of them to be sure of beating Limerick.
Without them it would surely have been a different story.
In the end, their five-point winning margin appeared comfortable, the reward being a first Munster final since 1999 (when they lost to Cork).
Yet, take out those four goals - and Limerick will be sick not to have stopped at least two of them - and Clare's win hinged more on pure determination. They wanted this one more, and no one can deny them that.
As usual, there was some price to pay - forward Tony Griffin only lasted 20 minutes before his hamstring went, and right at the end, corner back Brendan Bugler was shown a straight red card for a silly flick on Niall Moran - and he's now facing a four-week ban.
Yet so much about yesterday's semi-final, played in sunny yet incredibly breezy Semple Stadium, was about getting to play Tipperary on July 13th - and getting there good, bad or ugly.
In the setting up of a first Tipperary-Clare final since 1997, which will be played at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, the good was mostly left behind by the bad, although it was never ugly, and as a game it still had its moments.
Most of those moments came in flashes around the four Clare goals. Limerick won the toss but elected to play against the unseasonable breeze, which allowed Clare to build a platform for victory they would never once surrender. (Could this game really have been won and lost on the toss?)
So, after falling two points behind after the opening exchange of scores, Clare pounced for goal number one on 14 minutes.
Pat Vaughan, who started at corner back, fired a long, high ball towards the Limerick goalmouth from his own 50-metre line. This deceived Damien Reale and Mark Flaherty in their effort to win it, and worse, it deceived the Limerick goalkeeper, Brian Murray - and bounced into the net. Wind-aided, of course.
Just moments before, Murray had made a brilliant block from Niall Gilligan, yet this error was just the start of an agonising afternoon for the All Star goalkeeper.
Straightaway the score calmed Clare nerves and realised Limerick's worst fears.
Given their long wait since a poor league, Limerick needed a good start - and for the most part they got that. Their enthusiasm was evident, they were winning key possession at midfield, and Andrew O'Shaughnessy was either winning ball or converting frees.
Then they let it all slip away. Clare followed Vaughan's goal with two frees from Flaherty, and before Limerick had a chance to respond, they hit goal number two on 27 minutes. This time Jonathon Clancy got on the end of loose ball, dropped Séamus Hickey and fired almost straight at Murray, but just not quite close enough for him to stop it. Clancy ended a brilliant afternoon with 1-2.
Limerick at least responded with their first point in 15 minutes, but Clare tagged on another two points before the break to help establish a comfortable 2-7 to 0-6 advantage.
It may have been a little more than they deserved, but typical of Clare, they'd hustled and jostled throughout the half, also hitting six wides in the process.
Colin Lynch and Brian O'Connell were outstanding at midfield, Lynch still showing plenty of life in his 33-year-old legs.
The big problem for Limerick, beyond the opening 10 minutes, was up front. O'Shaughnessy was soon starved of any ball, and Seán O'Connor and Donnacha Sheehan simply were not up to pace. They were clearly missing a big target forward like Brian Begley, and at some stages, any forward at all.
Still, they brought themselves right back in it. Ollie Moran clearly decided to take on more responsibility, and just four minutes into the half, he ran after a loose ball and drove it straight into the Clare net.
Shortly after that, Limerick hit three unanswered points, including a whopper from Mike O'Brien at midfield, and an equally big one from Ollie Moran, and with that had it down to a two-point game - 2-9 to 1-10.
With some 20 minutes to play the game took on a whole new perspective, at least for a short while. Then Clare hit back with two more goals in the space of three minutes, and that was the end for Limerick.
Murray was hardly at fault for these; the Limerick defenders in front of him could have done better.
Barry Nugent had just replaced Flaherty when his goal chance was handed him on a plate with a sweet little flick from Tony Carmody, who himself had been set up nicely by Gilligan.
On 56 minutes Clare then scored the fourth and killer goal.
Lynch made a superb effort in delivering the ball inside to Diarmuid McMahon, whose awesome catch and strike were rewarded with the defining goal.
Limerick were suddenly down by eight points, and with a little over 10 minutes remaining there'd be no way back from that.
Limerick tired mentally and physically, and although they closed the game with four points, the goals just would not flow for them as they did for Clare.
Bugler's unnecessary foul on Niall Moran created a last chance but even that would have been too little too late.
CLARE: 1 P Brennan; 5 P Vaughan (1-0), 3 F Lohan, 2 G O'Grady; 4 B Bugler, 6 C Plunkett, 7 P Donnellan; 8 B O'Connell, 9 C Lynch (0-1); 14 T Carmody (0-2), 10 D McMahon (1-0), 12, J Clancy (1-2); 11 T Griffin, 13 N Gilligan (0-3, two frees), 15 M Flaherty (0-3, all frees). Subs: 30 D O'Rourke for Griffin (22 mins, inj); 20 B Nugent (1-1) for Flaherty (47); 19 G Quinn for Plunkett (67); 18 F Lynch for McMahon (71). Yellow cards: C Lynch (11 mins), T Carmody (35 mins), G Quinn (69 mins), B O'Connell (71 mins). Red cards: B Bugler (72 mins).
LIMERICK: 1 B Murray; 2 D Reale (0-1), 3 S Lucey, 4 M O'Riordan; 5 S Hickey, 6 P O'Dwyer, 7 M Foley; 8 D O'Grady (0-1), 9 M O'Brien (0-1); 10 M Fitzgerald, 11 O Moran (1-1), 12 N Moran (0-5); 13 A O'Shaughnessy (0-6, five frees), 14 S O'Connor, 15 D Sheehan. Subs: 25 D Ryan (0-1) for Sheehan (40 mins); 19 B Foley for Fitzgerald (53); 30 P Tobin for O'Connor (59). Yellow cards: N Moran (18 mins), P O'Dwyer (41 mins), O Moran (69 mins).
Attendance: 28,603.
Referee: E Morris (Dublin).
