Limerick make more history as Banner lowered in Munster final

Limerick are Munster Senior Hurling champions for the sixth successive year following a 1-26 to 1-20 victory over Clare at Semple Stadium, Thurles.

John Kiely's men were full value for the win, their third in the decider against the Banner in a row.

The Treatymen now advance to the All-Ireland semi-final as they go hunting for their fifth Liam MacCarthy title on the bounce.

Limerick had led by three in the run up to half time but a Peter Duggan goal saw Clare go in level at the break.

However, it was a dominant display in the second half by Limerick with Gearoid Hegarty’s 46th minute goal seeing them on their way.

It was a tense opening after the half hour delay due to the power outage with the game level on four occasions in the opening 12 minutes.

Clare got the first bit of breathing space thanks to successive scores from Tony Kelly and Aidan McCarthy.

Limerick soon hit back, however, with Declan Hannon and Diarmaid Byrnes squaring the game up once again.

McCarthy then had the first clear chance of a goal on 17 minutes but was brilliantly denied by Nickie Quaid. Byrnes was first to the rebound to hack the ball away from danger.

That gave Limerick a boost with a stunning Kyle Hayes point and a Gillane free seeing them 0-8 to 0-6 clear.

McCarthy arrested the Limerick burst with a free of his own but Hannon and Gillane stretched the advantage to three with 10 to go in the first half.

It stayed that way into added time but a long range Kelly free was eventually sent to the net by Duggan after Quaid scooped the ball away from his line. That saw the game squared up at 1-10 to 0-13.

Limerick got the first three points of the second half with Gillane, Shane O’Brien and Tom Morrissey all raising white flags.

Clare did respond to bring