Kevin Downes says he and his Na Piarsaigh team mates will have their work cut out for them when they take on Oulart The Ballagh in Saturday's All-Ireland club SHC semi-final.

The Limerick champions are currently ranked as 2/5 favourites against their Wexford counterparts, who have been cast out at 9/4, but Downes knows that they face a club on the crest of a wave having claimed its first ever Leinster title last November.

"For them, winning the Leinster was a massive deal. I'm sure they'll go out saying, 'express yourself'," Downes told the Irish Examiner.

"I think they'll be very confident after coming through Wexford and winning Leinster. We'll have our work cut out. They'll be very, very strong. Plenty of their players have played on the Wexford team."

Similar to the opposition, Na Piarsaigh have had near misses of their own in recent years and the Limerick forward says they'll be out to take another step towards making their own history this weekend.

"We lost semi-finals to Loughgiel in 2011 and Portumna in 2013. Hopefully we'll try to take whatever experience we've got from those two games," he said.

"But no Limerick club has won the All-Ireland, and Limerick haven't won an All-Ireland since '73. So you can't walk away from that. Until someone does do it, it's going to be there."

Throw-in for Saturday's last four clash at Semple Stadium is at 3.45pm.

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