Limerick down with a bump

Limerick came back down to earth with a bump in yesterday's Munster hurling semi final when they leaked four goals in their defeat by Clare.
It wasn't that the Treatymen looked to be in bad shape.
Their point scoring was at times out of the top drawer and they hung on doggedly right to the end.
They started brightly against the breeze and Clare had struggled to get into their stride in the early part of the game.
However, they never really recovered from Pat Vaughn's lob which somehow found the back of the Treatymen's men net.
Limerick continued to work hard from that point on and never actually threw in the towel.
They did get back within two points early in the second half but again their defence let them down with Clare scoring another two handy goals.
There's no doubt the Limerick defence missed the influence of Brian Geary at centre half back but Stephen Lucey looked out of sorts in full back and Limerick will need a huge improvement if they are to go anywhere in this year's All Ireland.
The Treatymen still have time to rebuild their season and the prospect of playing next against the beaten Leinster semi finalists will not have them losing any sleep.
However, Richie Bennis has to be concerned about the ease with which Clare opened up his defence.
I think Clare look better prepared and their confidence grew with the victory over Waterford but Bennis will know that the Clare attack is not exactly frightening and that there are better forward lines out there who would have destroyed Limerick yesterday.
The Treatymen will not surprise anyone this year and I doubt they can play again with the sort of indestructible belief which carried through last year's wonderful season.