As Marty Morrissey put it: “Oh my God.” And this wasn’t even one of the great Munster hurling finals, typical June weather – gale force winds and bucketing down with rain – hardly helping the antagonists put on a flawless show. But, as Dónal Óg Cusack noted, “there was a beauty in the game almost in an ugly way”. More beauty than ugliness, mind, it was typically marvellous fare, leaving you concluding that if Gianni Infantino was in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday, he’d revise his forecast that the World Cup final would be the greatest sporting occasion of the year. Joanne Cantwell made the mistake of introducing the game from close enough to the roof of the stadium, herself and her panel of pundits fortunate not to end up in Buncrana. Among them, incidentally, was Limerick’s own Séamus Flanagan who was making his Sunday Game debut.With five All-Irelands and five Munster titles to his name, Séamus is reasonably well up on the game, but do you know the way hurling can sometimes just look like a whirligig of activity but without any apparent structure? Well, Séamus quietly and expertly explained to us the workings of the Cork and Limerick teams, to the point where some of us now feel ready to manage an intercounty team. He was very excellent.No more than Séamus, Dónal Óg was tingling in anticipation of the encounter, Liam Sheedy marginally less so because Tipp were back home watching it on telly. Séamus and Liam forecast a Limerick triumph, but Dónal Óg – and you could have flattened us with a feather – went for Cork.First half. Between saying hello to people in Peru and Papua New Guinea, Marty was left gasping at some of the sorcery we witnessed, like Nickie Quaid’s save from Diarmuid Healy, Robert Downey plucking a sliotar from the heavens before sending it over the bar, and Shane O’Brien doing keepie-uppies before adding another Limerick point. And then there was Brian Hayes’ second half goal that was as exquisite as any of Flavio Cobolli’s drop shots in Roland Garros on Sunday. (Granted, for all the good they did Flavio in the end.)And for all the good Brian’s goal did Cork in the end too. Yes, some of us thought Cork were home and hosed, including, perhaps, the Páirc Uí Chaoimh DJ who took a while to blast the Cranberries over the speakers, perhaps having the Frank and Walters lined up before Limerick did late, late Limerick things. [ Limerick beat Cork by one point to claim Munster title - as it happenedOpens in new window ]“I feel that sickness in my stomach again,” said Dónal Óg as he watched Limerick celebrate like they’d won an All-Ireland 10-in-a-row, beating Cork on their own turf evidently a source a considerable joy. “But,” he added, “all is not lost and the road is long”. It is too, this All-Ireland business only warming up, so the Cranberries could take on the Frank and Walters on the big day yet. Páirc Uí Chaoimh, then, was the scene of no little ecstasy for boys and girls in green the past few days, the Republic of Ireland’s women producing one of their finer ever competitive results there on Friday evening when they got the better of the Dutch. Amber Barrett celebrates her winning goal against the Netherlands in Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Friday evening. Photograph: Ben Brady/INPHO This is where the stadium’s grounds people need to be saluted, somehow they repaired the damage from Amber Barrett’s knee-slide after her splendiferous 90th minute winner to make the pitch look as spiffy as it did for the Munster hurling final. Ireland, then, are inching ever closer to qualification for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil, our lads having missed out on this summer’s party in the USA/Canada/Mexico. England, of course, are there, and on Saturday they, quite literally, warmed up with a 1-0 thrashing of New Zealand in tropical Tampa. “That seems like a very happy England squad,” ITV’s Mark Pougatch said to Roy Keane. “Well, everyone is happy in camp a week or two out from the World Cup,” Roy replied. With close enough to a straight face, too.