LIMERICK 0-25, CLARE 2-10

CLARE'S turn to pick through the debris and ruthlessly discard that which was no longer useful. Ger Loughnane watched from the sideline as a selector and knew there was work to be done.

"We were blown away," he says "just blown away."

Limerick won by an emphatic 0-25 to 2-10 to claim their first Munster Final for 13 years. Clare's two goals put a surprising gloss on the scoreline. In fact Clare were blown away for their second Munster Final defeat in two years, a tough blow considering the usual presumptions which surrounded the prospect of a Munster Ulster All Ireland semifinal.

Limerick were on top all the way through and led by 0-11 to 0-7 at half time. The Clare half back line were in deep trouble throughout and Mike Galligan ended up with seven points from play. Galligan scoring comprised the bulk of the 13 from play which the Limerick half forwards picked off. Only Sean McMahon of the Clare half back trio survived till the following summer. Neither John O'Connor or John Chaplin even finished the game.

Mike Houlihan made amends for the disaster of the summer before and had one of his big days for Limerick, Steve McDonagh established himself as a corner back of note and Mike Nash secured tenure at full back.

Clare got two late goals to something on the scoreline but throughout the tentativeness that persisted right through to last years league final was evident The Clare attack was dilatory and slow. Andrew Whelan through on the Limerick goal in the second half allowed himself to be hooked, O'Loughlin missed a sitter, Tommy Guilfoyle found the net but dabbled for the rest of the afternoon.

"They hammered the living daylights out of us in Thurles that day," says Loughnane. "They were at their best, played really, really well. That Limerick team was on the lines of the team now. Great hunger, great level of fitness and on a bit of a roll. It was an important moment for Clare. We'd got past Tipperary who had beaten us by 18 points the year before. We thought we had the work done.

Physically they overpowered us. We couldn't cope fitness wise. They just played at a different pace to us. I remember looking out early on and they were getting to every ball a yard ahead of our fell as and thinking that we are really in trouble here. That was the message for Clare hurling. We weren't physically ready."

Tom Ryan had come from Ballybrown to take over from Phil Bennis with a simple creed. Play it fast. Limerick were hell for leather hurlers. Ryan had 10 years of good success behind him at club level and revelled in the job as the summer unwound.

"We started training in October of the year before, for that championship," says Ryan. We needed some new players and needed to get to a new level of fitness. We'd gone backwards a bit.

"I could see on the bench that day that Clare panicked a bit. They started making switches and changes very early on, moving people about and disrupting themselves. It was to our benefit really. Everything we did turned to gold. We were on a bit of a roll by that stage. The afternoon went disastrously wrong for Clare. The real Clare came back the next year.

"It was an easy enough match," say Ger Hegarty, who played at centre back that day. "Limerick were on top early. They dictated the trend. In 1995 Clare's start dictated it. Whoever gets on top early in these games, there's always a big bearing.

"We were never under any pressure that day," says Hegarty. "Training through that spring was hard and difficult and we had a few wins under our belt. The old team had virtually been broken up after the year before.

In Clare defeat was unwelcome. High hopes wiped away again.

"It was one of those strange games," says Cyril Lyons. "We were getting badly beaten but I can honestly say that in the last 25 minutes when I was on the field we could have scored five goals. It just didn't come off.

"We've had bad, bad days over the years," says Lyons, "but that would be there with the worst two or three. We really thought we were going to do something. I remember coming into the dressing room and there was fellas in there who couldn't talk. Just couldn't say anything. After we'd beaten Tipperary that summer we thought we were on the way. It was Len Gaynor's last game after four years in charge. He'd done great work. Willie Walsh had got word that he was going to be made a bishop and he was going too. There was a lot of people wondering if we would ever do anything."