MUNSTER SHC SEMI-FINAL/LIMERICK V CLARE:Even if you took their four goals out of it, Clare were still the superior outfit, writes Nicky English

I CAN'T remember when there was such a strong breeze blowing in a Munster hurling championship match and while it did influence the result it certainly doesn't explain it. Clare still delivered the better overall performance, and even if you had to take their four goals out of it, I don't think Limerick would have done enough to merit a victory.

Clare dominated midfield and were more physical throughout, but of course the key element of their victory was their goals. Limerick started very well, because they had to, but once Clare put their first two goals past them the wheels really came off for them, and they couldn't quite get their game back on track.

It's always hard on a goalkeeper when he makes mistakes and Brian Murray will know he should have stopped at least the first one. The second was hit just a little too close for him to do anything about it. Of course, that's no consolation, and those goals gave Clare the foundation for the win.

Scoring 4-12 is usually good enough to win any game, and Limerick can't have too many complaints. They didn't miss anything in the second half, but Clare had the better forwards overall, however. Tony Carmody had some good possession, even if he wasted a lot, while Mark Flaherty couldn't quite hit the heights he did against Waterford, but Jonathon Clancy was excellent, Niall Gilligan was in good form again, and at midfield Colin Lynch and particularly Brian O'Connell did very well. He won some huge ball in the second half when Clare came back under pressure and Clancy took his scores very well when Clare needed them, running around the place with typical Clare energy.

I said before the game that I felt Limerick would struggle up front and that proved true. Andrew O'Shaughnessy started well, but drifted right out of the game and while Seán O'Connor and Donnacha Sheehan won some ball they did very little with it.

As a result, once Clare got on top after their two goals, Limerick were virtually out of it for the rest of the half. Defensively, they were struggling as well and even Mark Foley had a poor game by his own standards. Brian Geary was an obvious loss and I felt Stephen Lucey wasn't as sharp as usual. The fact is they leaked four goals too many and you don't get away with that at this level.

Without Niall and Ollie Moran they would have been in big trouble up front. It's easy to say Clare were benefiting from the breeze, but sometimes playing into the wind can benefit a forward line, in that the ball drops in front of them. Limerick couldn't make any use of that, and once they conceded the two goals, I felt they lost of lot of confidence as well.

Their best performance came in the opening quarter of the first half, when they suddenly had Clare very worried. Mike O'Brien and Donal O'Grady came more into the game and suddenly the Clare defence, including Conor Plunkett, were under big pressure. Against that momentum, Clare came up with two more goals, and that effectively ended it.

Clare showed plenty of other encouraging signs beyond the goals, however. They do have a strong panel, and while they lost Griffin early on, their substitutes all did well, particularly Declan O'Rourke and Barry Nugent. Gerry Quinn is back in contention as well, so there's a good 19 or 20 players there now pushing for the starting line-up and that's always a good thing.

While Limerick never really looked like winners, they started very well, and to be honest, showed much more commitment and enthusiasm than I expected. But when they fell behind to the goals I felt their heads dropped a little, almost in the defeatist sense. I don't think they were as fit as Clare either over the 70 minutes and this proves the notion teams not going well in the league will struggle in the early stages of the championship.

It's not a matter of flicking a switch anymore, like some teams could do in the past.

They'll no doubt have some complaints after the referee, but he didn't cost them the game. There were some strange decisions all right, but I felt the referee evened that out, and even if he had give a penalty in the end, it wouldn't have been enough to save Limerick.

It's just a pity for Brendan Bugler that he went and did something silly like that and will miss the Munster final as a result. He's a loss to Clare, no doubt about that, but I expect they'll improve again for the Munster final.

Tipperary will start that game as big favourites now, but Clare won't be under-estimated either.

One word about Wexford's win over Dublin, which I expected would be the case. Dublin had their chance down in Nowlan Park last weekend, and left it behind them, and Wexford proved once again that they're at their most dangerous when coming back from some heavy criticism.