ALL-IRELAND SHC SEMI-FINAL/Kilkenny 3-22 Cork 0-19:IN A SEQUENCE of success now stretching to a record 21 championship matches over five seasons, Kilkenny have produced many telling statistics. Among the latest benchmarks set at Croke Park in yesterday's All-Ireland hurling semi-final was the biggest win they have enjoyed over Cork in the championship in more than a century.

Despite a largely mystifying flow of business that marginally tightened the odds on the Munster finalists yesterday morning, not many people were expecting anything other than a win for the champions in this, the penultimate hurdle on the way to GAA immortality as the only county to record five successive All-Ireland wins.

These sorts of records are all very well in a dry, historical context but the details of Kilkenny’s victory yesterday were a faithful reflection of the chasm between two counties – who were such close rivals up to a few years ago.

It will hardly ease despondency in Cork to know that the final humiliation could have been worse, more severe than 12 points, or that the match was for the first quarter of the low-scoring, goal-less type in which they have in recent times got the better of Kilkenny.

This ultimately was as bad as the hardiest realist down south could have envisaged. Kilkenny led for all but a few seconds of the 70 minutes and, in a thunderous second quarter, buried the match and any notions of a surprise.

The day started badly for Cork with news that Shane O’Neill was out with injury. Michael Cussen was dropped in favour of Cian McCarthy, son of dual 1990 All-Ireland winner, Teddy.

Yet the winners managed to perform their feats with the team’s third-choice centre back, after a shoulder injury to Brian Hogan in the 16th minute and in the long-term absence of John Tennyson.

James Ryall confounded speculation about the switching of corner backs by simply marching straight into the position and catching the first two balls as well as dropping in the long-range bomb that led to the second goal.

By the half-hour mark Henry Shefflin, the most dangerous forward of his generation and the team’s undisputed spiritual leader on the field, had been helped off with an ominous-looking knee injury. Into his place came Martin Comerford to swing over a score within 10 seconds of his arrival.

Still there was no let-up. Kilkenny were stronger and more dynamic all around the field, able to break tackles and power into space, alert and decisive when hunting in packs and harassing isolated Cork players in possession. They also improved the accuracy of their shooting and pressed home advantages of territory and possession.

Cork’s one hope had been that their less experienced forwards could raise their levels of performance and maintain the competitiveness of the contest for long enough to create unease in their opponents’ ranks. But the hoped-for long-ball threat from Aisake Ó hÁilpín never materialised.

He and his marker Noel Hickey were yellow-carded in the second minute but despite this potential inhibition, Cork never managed to sustain the pressure on the Kilkenny full back and Ó hÁilpín saw little of the ball thereafter.

When Denis Walsh withdrew him at half-time, it was almost a tacit acceptance that any chance of winning the match was gone, which of course it was. Kilkenny fired over four points within three minutes after the restart, two frees from Power and points by Eddie Brennan and Cha Fitzpatrick.

That stretched the margin to 17 and any slackening in the champions’ performance during the remainder of the match or the run of points Cork managed has to be seen in the context of a match that was effectively all over.

Both sides had been guilty of squandering early chances but it was plain that Cork needed to make the best of everything. Initial slivers of encouragement – Donal Óg Cusack’s save from Power, Niall McCarthy’s determined tackle on Fitzpatrick and Ben O’Connor’s equaliser at 0-2 each in the 16th minute – were rendered inadequate by the quick-fire goals that sent Kilkenny on their way.

Shefflin drove through the middle and set up Brennan for a crashing finish in the 17th minute and, five minutes later, Ryall’s long ball wasn’t cleared by Cusack under pressure from Power and Aidan Fogarty pulled on the loose ball to make it 2-4 to 0-3.

Points rained down for the rest of the half as Cork’s defence buckled under the unremitting waves of attack. Power showed why he is so widely seen as Shefflin’s heir by taking on the frees and shooting good scores from play.

The winners’ centrefield was excellent and chipped in four points for good measure. Fitzpatrick’s call-up made hardly any difference despite the importance of the injured Michael Rice to the team and Michael Fennelly was at times dominant.

Eoin Larkin was closer to his Hurler of the Year form with a physical display that Cork just couldn’t contain and TJ Reid bounced the redoubtable John Gardiner off the ball in a telling 24th-minute incident. Reid pointed late in the half to ensure that the entire Kilkenny attack had scored from play by the interval.

By contrast Cork’s forwards took 50 minutes to register their first score from play.

In the flat atmosphere of what remained, Patrick Horgan got on a good scoring run, upsetting Jackie Tyrrell’s hitherto excellent year by switching onto him for most of the second half, during which time the Cork man shot six points – four from play and one from a penalty deflected over the bar after JJ Delaney had fouled him.

Delaney had been otherwise immaculate and although Niall McCarthy was game enough to disrupt Tommy Walsh, the game broke up so much in the second half that the Kilkenny wing back was able to produce his usual acquisitive display, haring onto loose ball and clearing it.

In the 63rd minute Power helped himself to the team’s third goal after replacement John Mulhall had put in an inviting ball for him to catch and dispatch.

Cork had simply no answers. One match now stands between Kilkenny and the greatest achievement in All-Ireland history.