Limerick v Waterford - Analysis: Great credit is due to Richie Bennis and the Limerick management for the way they've used their extra man - the crowd - by forging a sense of unity and passion with the fans and using that synergy to drive the team forward.

They've also learned as they've gone along and were a lot better the third day against Tipperary than they had been in Thurles in the second game.

What they have is massive will, and they won't be easily shifted, particularly as there wouldn't be anything like the same fear of Waterford there might have been of Cork.

Most of those Limerick players have won under-21 All-Irelands and have been waiting for their time to come - even if many inside and outside the county were beginning to wonder had that promise passed.

They have had to deal with injury misfortune, losing their captain. Damien Reale is a fine corner back but Mark O'Riordan can do a marking job, and Peter Lawlor showed signs of finding his best form in the third Tipperary match. Reale is a loss but he'll be a major loss if Lawlor plays like he did in the first two games.

You can't see them overcoming the talent of Waterford but if Justin McCarthy's team sleepwalk into what is a very unusual situation for them - 1 to 3 favourites in a Munster final - they will be in trouble. I don't know what's happening in Waterford, but if supporters get it into their heads that a game is won before the throw-in, it can be hard to protect the players.

If Waterford play poorly - and, to be honest, they have sometimes disappointed in big games - Limerick are battle hardened enough to punish that. If it's the sort of match that ends up 5-18 to 1-19, there's only going to be one winner, because no one takes Waterford in a scoring free-for-all.

But I'd say that if Cork were playing Waterford again they'd try to avoid the game being as open as the one in Semple Stadium, and if Cork wouldn't want it open Limerick certainly don't.

Cork-Waterford was a fantastic game played at a hugely different pace from the other Munster semi-final, but it was much looser and less physical than the Limerick-Tipp trilogy. Waterford got five goals but that was just as well because they needed five goals to win.

Limerick need to keep improving and find another 20 per cent. They seemed able to do that at times in the third match but were undermined by familiar failings in front of goal. They have to play with a physical edge and they have that ability, as they showed in those clashes with Tipperary.

In fact, the first day in Limerick they paid dearly for that robust approach; they would have won but for the indiscipline that cost them Damien Reale and nearly cost them Stephen Lucey.

But Limerick's best chance is to upset Waterford and throw them out of gear, because Waterford are the most talented team in the country. It will be a test for Waterford not to take this bait.

They let in three goals the last day but we've seen better from Declan Prendergast and certainly Eoin Murphy.

Ken McGrath is outstanding, and his match-up with Ollie Moran is fascinating, one top man versus another.

Although he's a hurler more than a stopper, McGrath is as good as there is; if he plays well, Waterford will be on their way.

The team have other big-game players and there are signs they've matured. It was a good omen in the league final that John Mullane and Dan Shanahan, who had been out of it for most of the game against Kilkenny, popped up in the last few minutes to get the winning scores in a high-profile and tightly contested game.

Limerick were able to dominate the Tipp half forwards, who changed with every match, except in the first half in Thurles, when Tipperary just moved the ball quickly into the inside line and ended up annihilating Limerick for that period.

Waterford, on the other hand, can win their own ball as well as score. If Shanahan, Eoin Kelly, Mullane and Séamus Prendergast take a grip on the match it will put Limerick under tremendous pressure as well as squeezing their forwards.

In the third game Brian Geary, Mark Foley and Peter Lawlor were able to come out at times unchallenged and deliver plenty of ball into their forwards, who then squandered numerous opportunities.

If Limerick squander as many tomorrow Waterford won't have to score much to win.

I know what it's like, both as a player and a manager, when things start to go wrong for the favourites in Munster finals. Players behave out of character and do things you'd never have imagined. Really good ones lose the ability to do even routine things properly, and underdogs find form they've never shown before. We were 1 to 3 favourites in 1990 but Cork's Mark Foley arrived unheralded and scored 2-7.

This is potentially a big year for Waterford; to lose to Limerick in the Munster final would be a disaster for the rest of their championship. They have to be able to deal with a match like this without getting psyched out, and I think they will.

In the qualifiers, Clare-Galway is the key game. It will be interesting to see the formation of Ger Loughnane's team, who gets to play provincial finalists as distinct from provincial champions, and how much impact Loughnane's sessions have had.

Galway can beat Clare but it will be a good test. Clare did well to go to Belfast and win. The spirit on the pitch seems fine.

In the other matches, Tipperary, though far from impressive last week, will beat an understrength Dublin, and Cork will have too much for Offaly, whose big chance of a breakthrough was last week, not today.

And Antrim can build on the display for most of last week's game and beat Laois.