All-Ireland SHC semi-final: Limerick 1-21 Clare 1-19Limerick, their bullet-proof aura both enhanced and questioned during the course of a high-tension afternoon, came good at the right time to reach a first All-Ireland hurling final in three years.They trailed Clare for an hour from the 11th minute to the 71st when Aidan O’Connor out-fielded Darragh Lohan to get inside the defence and score the goal that decided the semi-final.Although they have accumulated five MacCarthy Cups and have had an air of resolution all season while accumulating league and provincial titles, there have been occasional high-wire acts and just as they struck late in the Munster final, so too on this day.They deserve credit for typically hanging in there when everything looked to be going wrong and Clare’s lead lasted remorselessly all the way to injury-time. Their bench re-energised them with Cian Lynch, who didn’t start because of a knock, deemed sufficiently capable – or badly needed – to make an appearance for the last quarter-hour or so.It paid off, as he started the move that led to O’Connor’s goal and in the late, frenzied exchanges, his artful ability to flick possession out of roiling rucks was a big plus.Gearóid Hegarty also became increasingly influential, a tireless beacon for Nickie Quaid to hit with puck-outs, once the jeopardy of his original marker Conor Cleary being yellow-carded had been ended by substitution.Limerick's Diarmaid Byrnes consoles David McInerney of Clare after the game. Photograph: Grace Halton/Inpho Clare were desperately disappointed, having shrugged off an indifferent season with a performance that crackled with intent and looked to have positioned themselves for a return to the final and a date with western neighbours, Galway.What threatened to be a turning point didn’t end up in that bracket – a 57th-minute penalty that Tony Kelly cracked into the net to bank a six-point lead going down the stretch.There were protests that Nickie Quaid’s bringing down of Peter Duggan was about as cynical as could be found in any textbook on the subject. All maybe true but for it to merit a spell in the sin bin, the aggrieved player has to be in possession (a daft gloss contained in the rulebook’s section of terms and conditions) when fouled whereas Duggan was chasing the ball he’d tapped past the Limerick goalkeeper.Quaid was yellow-carded, which was the correct decision.The combined force of grievance and the hollow sense that the game was turning against them seemed to subdue the 2024 champions and they appeared paralysed when opportunities arose to go for the jugular.Clare's Peter Duggan is fouled by Nickie Quaid of Limerick. Photograph: Tom O’Hanlon/Inpho Mark Rodgers, who had been accurate all afternoon from frees, chose the 59th minute to hit a poor wide after Diarmuid Stritch had been fouled.In the minutes that followed, Duggan made a great lay-off to Tony Kelly in front of goal and he pulled hard when perhaps a point was the percentage call; Diarmuid Ryan mishit a ball into space where it was intercepted and followed it up with a long-range wide.Limerick compounded these let-offs by taking their own toll, frees converted by O’Connor and Diarmaid Byrnes. With the water level rising, O’Connor had another free before the fateful goal. Clare chased to no avail. David Fitzgerald had a chance to equalise at 1-20 apiece but it went wide. O’Connor struck again to double the margin with the Limerick support in transports of delighted celebration. A late lineball, which had to be the first link in a chain leading to goal, was turned over.It was unarguably Clare’s best performance of the championship – so different in resolve and execution from the wretched Munster round-robin match in Ennis that it might warrant an investigation into identity theft.A hurley is thrown at Aidan O'Connor as he scores the late decisive goal for Limerick. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho They took control of the first half with a vibrant display, hounding the Limerick attack and beginning to find their range up front where the efforts of Kelly, in his best Croke Park form, Shane O’Donnell in his final match and Duggan, whose combination of physicality - tailor-made for the light-touch regulation of referee Thomas Walsh - and skill yielded 0-3 from play.Limerick manager John Kiely paid tribute to Clare’s first-half scoring efficiency of nearly 80 per cent, 16 scores from 21 shots. They led 0-16 to 0-11 at half-time, which could have been more but for a late and ultimately significant two-point riposte by Limerick before the break.They would manage just 1-3 in the second half, a drying up of scores that felt ominous at the time but until the very end, didn’t fully threaten disaster.It was a blistering finale for the 56,891 spectators in attendance. Limerick slipped free from a match that looked for a long time to have forced them towards the exit door. Instead, they renew acquaintance with Galway in a final pairing that eight years ago signalled the rise of this remarkable team.They were the coming team back then whereas Galway were slightly wearied champions. Don’t expect Limerick to acknowledge that the roles have maybe reversed.Limerick: N Quaid; S Finn, D Morrissey, B Nash (0-1); D Byrnes (0-3, 2f), W O’Donoghue, K Hayes (0-1); A English (0-1), D O’Donovan; C O’Neill (0-2), A O’Connor (1-9, 9f), G Hegarty; A Gillane (0-1), S O’Brien (0-1), P Casey (0-2). Subs: D Reidy for O’Donovan (48 mins), C Lynch for O’Neill (57 mins), T Morrissey for Gillane (52 mins), M Casey for D Morrissey (63 mins), F Fitzgerald for P Casey (75 mins).Clare: E Quilligan; A Hogan, D McInerney, D Lohan; C Cleary, D Ryan, N O’Farrell; J Conlon, R Taylor (0-2); C Malone (0-1), P Duggan (0-3), S Rynne; M Rodgers (0-7, 6f), S O’Donnell (0-1), T Kelly (1-5, 1-0p). Subs: C Galvin for Conlon (46 mins), D Stritch for Conlon (48 mins), I Galvin for Rodgers (62 mins), D Fitzgerald for Rynne (63 mins), D Reidy for Stritch (69 mins).Referee: T Walsh (Waterford).