All-Ireland champions Limerick are all but guaranteed of a top-three finish in Munster after this 18-point thumping of Clare.

There has been no wielding of the axe by the Clare management in the wake of last weekend’s 13-point hammering at the hands of Tipperary, with the team named for tomorrow’s game against Limerick showing just one change in personnel.

A Shane O’Donnell and Tony Kelly-led Clare spoiled Waterford’s Munster championship homecoming to leave the Déise playing a dangerous game of catch-up in the coming weeks.

Aaron Gillane pointed a free in the fifth minute of injury-time to snatch a draw for All-Ireland champions Limerick against the only team to beat them in last year’s championship.

The scoreline suggests a rip-roaring contest but that is a false reading.

Reigning Fitzgibbon Cup champions UL have a job on their hands to emerge from the group of death after losing their opening fixture to UCC this afternoon.

Bandon 15 Skibbereen 13: Underage rugby in West Cork is going from strength to strength and will continue to do so for years to come if the quality of the football in yesterday’s Bank of Ireland Munster Under-18 Club Cup final proves a reliable yardstick.

Sixmilebridge 1-20 Clooney-Quin 1-14: Twelve minutes into the second half of yesterday’s Clare senior hurling final, Clooney-Quin’s James Corry popped over what seemed a tidy but unremarkable point out — only there was something remarkable about it.

Sixmilebridge captured their 13th Clare senior hurling title on Sunday, emphatically beating Clooney-Quin in Sunday's replay.

Cork 0-19 Clare 0-15: Cork’s fourth win of the Co-Op Superstores.ie Munster SHL denied Clare a place in this Sunday’s decider.

Bandon Grammar School 7 Crescent College Comprehensive 32: Holders Crescent College Comprehensive had to come from behind but still managed a fully deserved Clayton Hotels Munster Junior Schools win over Bandon Grammar in this second round “losers” tie at Musgrave Park yesterday.

Na Piarsaigh (Limerick) 3-11 Sixmilebridge (Clare) 1-15: NA PIARSAIGH remain on course for a third Munster Club hurling title in five years after a blistering second-half performance saw them power past the home side at O’Garvey Park, Sixmilebridge yesterday.

Clare 3-26 Offaly 0-15

Adare's John Fitzgibbon was the hero for Limerick but Clare were left counting the cost of their indiscipline in a niggly and sometimes ugly Munster quarter-final.

KILKENNY 1-18

A lucky 14-man Clare somehow escaped Cusack Park with the win, largely thanks to goals from John Conlon and Tony Kelly.

Cork 2-21 Clare 0-18: Waterford Crystal SHC semi-final: The Cork management vowed at the outset of 2015 to cast the net far and wide.

O’Shea has voiced his opposition to the proposal of the Central Council workgroup that All-Ireland hurling final replays take place six days after the drawn game.

Clare will meet Cork in the Waterford Crystal Cup semi-finals next weekend, following a slender 0-16 to 0-15 win over Tipperary at Sixmilebridge.

Clare 2-20 Waterford 0-17

Clare 0-18 Galway 1-15

ALLIANZ HL DIV 1A:

Dublin 2-17 Clare 0-17

Clare 1-16 Kilkenny 0-18

Clare have named 12 of their All-Ireland winning team for tomorrow’s Division 1A league opener against Kilkenny in Ennis.

Clare 1-14 Limerick 0-11

Clare have included just two of their All-Ireland winning team in their side for tomorrow’s Waterford Crystal Cup quarter-final against Limerick in Sixmilebridge.

Na Piarsaigh (Limerick) 4-14 Sixmilebridge (Clare) 0-8

Sixmilebridge 1-11 Clonlara 0-11

Clare 3-13 University of Limerick 1-13

Clare 2-17 Kilkenny 2-11

Both Clare and Kilkenny have named unchanged line-ups for tomorrow’s Bord Gáis All-Ireland U-21 hurling championship final in Thurles (7pm) from the teams that defeated Antrim and Galway respectively in the All-Ireland semi-finals.

Clare 4-24 Antrim 0-8

Clare 4-23 Antrim 0-7

How do you deal with expectation?

Paddy Kelly has earned a recall to the Cork starting line-up for next Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Donegal at Croke Park.

What goes around comes around — it’s an adage often used in sport but rarely can it have been as true as it was in Ennis last night for this Munster U21 hurling championship final.

Seven times since the inception of this competition in 1964, Clare have met Tipperary in the Munster final and seven times they have lost.

A romp in the park for Clare in this Bord Gáis Éireann Munster U21 HC semi-final last night as they simply swept aside the feeble challenge of Waterford.

Tipperary edged out their Clare hosts by a point in an entertaining senior hurling challenge at the official opening of the Clonlara GAA facilities last night.