A highly-impressive Limerick outfit defeated Tipperary by eleven points, 2-24 to 0-19, at the Gaelic Grounds.

The runaway winners - who gained revenge for their exit at the hands of Tipp last year - will now entertain Clare on Wednesday, July 12^th, for a place in the provincial decider.

Both these counties have a great recent record in the underage grades, as well as a familiarity with one another - with the Treaty County having captured the 2015 U21 All-Ireland while Tipp won last year's All-Ireland minor crown (beating Limerick in the final!) as well as dethroning Limerick in this grade - but Pat Donnelly's slick Shannonsiders were clearly a class apart tonight, leading from start to finish.

With the wind at their backs, Limerick (featuring ten All-Ireland winners from two years ago!) took the game by the scruff of the neck in the first half as goals from county seniors Tom Morrissey and Barry Nash helped propel them into a commanding 2-12 to 0-8 interval lead, with five of their starting forwards on target from play before the break.

The unerring Aaron Gillane (0-9) had the hosts ahead inside 40 seconds and Cian Lynch and Colin Ryan followed up with points before influential captain Morrissey - who'd earlier flashed a goal effort to the right and wide - dived in to poke the sliothar to the Tipperary net on five minutes after Nash's initial shot had been saved by Brian Hogan.

Midfielder Ryan's second point made it 1-4 to no score and 2016 All-Ireland minor medallist Mark Kehoe finally got the Premier County on the scoreboard in the eleventh minute before midfielder Billy McCarthy struck their second, only for Morrissey to reply immediately.

Kehoe replied to a Gillane free and daylight appeared between the sides at the start of the second quarter when Nash calmly batted the winners' second goal to the net - 2-6 to 0-3. Lyndon Fairbrother (free) and Kehoe pointed for the losers either side of a nice score from wing back Barry Lynch; a tidy Gillane fetch and finish kept the home team nine in front with ten minutes left in the opening period.

Barry Murphy pointed either side of a Ger Browne reply as the margin went out to ten but Fairbrother lofted over his second and third successful frees, the latter after some very crude defending brought an end to Browne's purposeful surge. Lynch smashed over a sensational Limerick point from tremendous distance a minute from the short whistle and Morrissey closed the first-half scoring with a classy finish in added time to leave ten between them at the turnaround.

Ten points were shared during the third quarter: Fairbrother, Willie Connors and Browne reduced the deficit before Gillane's free was followed by Tipp points from Browne and Fairbrother as the gap came down to six - 2-13 to 0-13. But four successive Gillane points left Limerick out of sight again and they surged twelve ahead by the 50^th minute thanks to Peter Casey and Morrissey.

Man of the Match Morrissey helped himself to another point - his fourth - after Browne and substitute Cian Darcy (free) had pegged back a couple of consolation points. The excellent Browne hammered over Tipp's 16^th point from way out the field before Gillane replied from a free two minutes from the end.

Casey tagged on two more Limerick scores either side of Tipp points from substitutes Gavin O'Halloran and Tommy Nolan; sub Paudie Ahern closed the scoring as the impressive Treaty marched ominously into the semi-finals. On the evidence of what we saw tonight, this vastly-experienced and highly-skillful Limerick side - All-Ireland minor finalists three years ago - could go a long way.

Limerick - E McNamara; S Finn, D Fanning, D Joy; R Lynch (0-2), K Hayes, J Adams; R Hanley, C Ryan (0-2); A Gillane (0-9, 7f), C Lynch (0-1), T Morrissey (1-4); P Casey (0-3), B Nash (1-0), B Murphy (0-2). Subs: C Boylan for R Hanley, T Grimes for J Adams, O O'Reilly for B Murphy, L Lyons for C Ryan, P Ahern (0-1) for A Gillane. 

Tipperary - B Hogan; P Maher, E Moloney, K Hassett; R Byrne, B McGrath, E Heffernan; B McCarthy (0-1), G Browne (0-5); A Coffey, S Quirke, M Kehoe (0-3); L Fairbrother (0-5, 4f), D Gleeson, W Connors (0-1). Subs: R Teehan for D Gleeson, T Nolan (0-1) for W Connors, C Darcy (0-2f) for L Fairbrother, P Ryan for B McCarthy, G O'Halloran (0-1) for E Heffernan.

Referee - C Lyons.

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