Tipperary relishing shot at revenge against galvanised Limerick

It's do or die in what will be a festival of hurling this weekend.

The year is 2005. The venue is Punchestown Racecourse. The festival at that time is called Oxegen and we couldn’t wait to load up the Volkswagen Polo with cans, tents and five very excited people on the Friday and head up the road – we really maxed out on the space in that little car.

The line-up included Green Day, Foo Fighters, Kaiser Chiefs, Snoop Dogg and of course The Saw Doctors to name but a few. Looking back it was unbelievable to have so much world-class talent assembled in a field in Kildare.

Fast forward to 2023 and this time me and my wife will be loading up a seven-seater with nappy bags, fully-charged iPads and enough snacks to feed a small army to head over to Thurles but the same type of anticipation and excitement is there, kind of.

What I mean is I feel this weekend is going to be a festival of hurling. The headliners are Clare and Cork on the Ennis Stage at 2pm and after that set the main stage in Tom Semple’s field hosts Tipperary and Limerick.

The weatherman says it’s going to be between 16 and 18 degrees, as I write this piece the only tickets available are for the Killinan End Terrace (the Tipp Terrace) and both towns will be hopping well before throw-in.

The atmospheres will create themselves, now can the hurling match up to it? I fully believe it will because now there’s something big on the line.

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Limerick's 17-game unbeaten run was ended in dramatic fashion by Clare last