Munster Under-21 Championship semi-finals: Cork 3-10 Limerick 1-11 Cork ended Limerick's three-year reign as Munster and All-Ireland under-21 hurling champions with a deserved victory at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last night.
Their place in the provincial final was never in doubt after Setanta Ó hAilpín claimed his second goal in the 41st minute to give them a 3-8 to 0-8 lead. Limerick showed their battling qualities by scoring 1-3 without reply, with Pat Kirby scoring their only goal two minutes later, but Cork were always in control, despite shooting 15 wides.
Cork led by 2-5 to 0-6 at the break, though Limerick had started promisingly, jumping 0-4 to 0-2 in front, but then disaster struck. An 80-yard free by John Gardiner slipped through the legs of goalkeeper Timmy Houlihan for Cork's opening goal in the 17th minute. A second came five minutes later with Gardiner again involved. This time he picked out Ó hAilpín who raced through the defence before kicking home from close range.
Cork finished the half on a high as points from Mark O'Connor, Diarmuid O'Riordan and outstanding captain Paul Tierney helped them to a five-point lead.
CORK: M Coleman; S Murphy, G O'Brien, B Murphy; G Callinan, J Gardiner (1-0), C O'Connor; P Tierney capt (0-3), K Hartnett; M O'Connor (0-1), K Murphy, S O'Sullivan; D O'Riordan (0-3), S Ó hAilpín (2-0), D Cashman (0-1). Subs: F Murphy (0-2) for O'Sullivan, B Barry for M O'Connor.
LIMERICK: T Houlihan; D O'Mahoney, P O'Dwyer, M Clifford; G Hagney, E Foley (0-1), M O'Brien; N Moran (0-1), P Tobin; T Carmody (0-1), P Ryan, P Kirby (1-5); A O'Shaughnessy capt (0-1), B Geoghegan, B Murray. Subs: P Russell (0-2) for Ryan, A O'Connor for Geoghegan.
Referee: M Wadding (Waterford).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)