New lads put down marker for Davy

Clare 1-14 Limerick 0-11

“There was a crash in the Shannon tunnel which caught us up, the whole tunnel was closed. We were late for the warm-up in Meelick, late getting here. We had decided not to go by Thomond Park because of the match there (Munster v Edinburgh) but we still got caught.”

Limerick were also late in getting into this game: scoreless after eight ineffective minutes, and already 1-1 behind against a Clare side that was shorn 14 starters from last September’s All-Ireland triumph (late call-up Pat O’Connor the only exception). For this TJ had less of an excuse: “We’d have been happy with a few of the performances but we missed a lot of chances in front of goals, missed a lot of frees. We had a few chances to get back into the game but conceded a few soft frees which they scored — that was the difference.”