Where Sunday’s game was won and lost

15 v 14

In the Munster final, it was Cork who suffered from losing a marquee forward to a red card, but they were on the other side on Sunday. The parallels even extended to Henry Shefflin being dismissed at almost the same stage as Patrick Horgan was against Limerick. “I definitely wouldn’t say it was the dominating factor,” said McGrath, “but it was a boost. You never like to see someone sent off, but Henry’s such a leader. We regrouped at half-time, and there was always only going to be one player to be the spare man — Conor O’Sullivan carried his role out perfectly.”

Case for the defence