Most previews of last Sunday’s All Ireland hurling semi-final predicted a Tipperary victory - but not without a battle from Limerick, a county renowned for its fighting spirit.  Well the pundits got the first part right but not the second as Tipperary put six goals past a sorry Limerick.  It took Tipp 17 minutes to get their first 3 goals - one each by Eoin Kelly, Noel McGrath and Pat Kerwick.  The remaining three goals came from the stick of Lar Corbett and all in the last 13 minutes.  The last side to score 6 goals in a championship match was Waterford last year against Antrim.

Corbett ended the day with 3-1 and moved to the top of the scorers from play chart with six goals and seven points so far, three points ahead of Galway’s Niall Healy.  Eoin Kelly bagged 1-6 (6 points from frees), Noel McGrath helped himself to 1-3 and Pat Kerwick 1-2.  If you knew beforehand that Tipp were going to score six goals, you’d have reckoned that Seamus Callinan would get at least one as Callinan had scored a goal in each of his five previous championship matches.  However the Tipp man stuck to points this time scoring 0-3.

There was very little to cheer about for Limerick.  Keeper Brian Murray scored his second penalty of the season.  Sub Brian O’Sullivan who was making his championship debut scored 1-1 from play in the second half.

Tipperary now face Kilkenny on the 6th of September with the Cats going for 4-in-a-row.  The game will be reffed by Offaly’s Diarmuid Kirwan who also reffed the 2007 final.

As mentioned there was 1 newcomer last weekend:

Limerick

• Brian O’Sullivan

That brings to 62 the number of newcomers to championship hurling this year.