Era ends as it began – with Jimmy and Cork kings of Munster

Perhaps we all forgot that part of the equation: the game.

After the farewells and fanfare, not to mention the faux controversy over tickets, there was a Munster final to play yesterday in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Cork and Limerick were set up to see the old place out with an encounter to suit the occasion, and 36,075 crammed in to say goodbye to the venue, but what we got split the difference on the scale between a bang and a whimper until the second half, when the intensity ramped up considerably.