Paul Murphy has admitted that Kilkenny were lucky to get the better of Limerick on Sunday.

Corner back Murphy delivered a heroic performance as the Leinster champions held on for a dramatic All-Ireland semi-final success at Croke Park.

"It was just such a battle from the start," he says in The Irish Times. "We knew coming in that Limerick's work rate was going to be absolutely massive and that it was going to be that way for 70 minutes. Thankfully we matched it at stages and they outdone us at stages as well.

"The game just ebbed and flowed. Luckily we were on the right side of the scoreboard in the end but it really could have gone either way and I think everyone knows that.

"We knew well Limerick's work rate is what makes them. I think it's their main aspect and the work of likes of Paul Browne and Donal O'Grady is huge. I think it starts inside with the likes of Graham Mulcahy and these lads. They just hound you and we knew would happen.

"Their intensity at the start was a little bit higher than ours maybe but we got ours up to their level eventually. But no, we knew what they would come with. I think maybe the fact that it didn't surprise us meant we were able to keep calm because we were expecting it though.

"We knew that Limerick were capable of this. We knew they weren't going to give up. They probably felt a bit disappointed from last year's semi-final that they didn't perform the way they wanted and this year they were certainly going to try and make up for it. I think they did make up for it. They had their time, we had our time but thankfully we got through. It's a massive tribute to them how they played." Tweet

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