Throughout the precise year since Clare crushed his team in a replay, Nicky English must have hoped for the scene which unfolded at Pairc Ui Chaoimh yesterday. Outside the tumult, inside the jostling exuberance of the win which sets up the whole summer.

"We were prepared for anything," he says. "There was going to be no panic. We had to try and keep our shape. Ultimately hurling is a game of one man against one man and you must try and bring it to that at the end of the day. We learned a lot of lessons last year, about having our team fresh. We were annihilated on the 12th of June and had to face up to that."

But such an improvement from the dogged affair which yielded up the win over Waterford only a fortnight previously. "The Waterford game shouldn't be underestimated. Even today we hit a lot of wides, but we were probably more anxious against Waterford than we were today. We didn't have an awful lot to lose today, everyone had us written off."

He can now rewind the weeks since the unimpressive league final defeat by Galway and interpret it more positively than would ever have appeared possible at the time.

"The Tuesday night after the league final was when I knew we were going to do it. It was a great wake-up call for us. We're a lot smarter than we were. We were a lot fresher and stronger. We had the defeat last year. You're always dangerous with a chip on your shoulder. I don't think it's the end of Clare, but a rest won't do them any harm."

Yet, even at the moment of triumph, there are more concerns. As if afraid that someone from Clare might see him smiling, he cautions against too much celebration.

"We're now going to play the All-Ireland champions in Thurles. It's not a carnival, it's a serious game of hurling. The way to get to the final is to get there fresh and not go through the back door. We learned how to cope with defeat last year. Now we've three weeks to try and come to terms with victory over Clare who have been a great team. But Cork are All-Ireland champions."

Full forward Paul Shelly is asked was his battle with Brian Lohan physical. He replies through his stitched lip. "Physical for me anyway. He went out to play a physical game hoping he'd upset me. But it was hurling on our minds, we wanted to win and get to a Munster final and have a long summer."

Clare goalkeeper David Fitzgerald emerges from the vanquished dressingroom, the latest in a long file of miserable players. But he alone finds some words.

"We died at the end pretty easy and I wasn't happy about that. Tis a change to sit back and look at a Munster final. We've been in seven. We weren't sure of our form, but I knew that Tipp could improve because when they needed it, they were able to go up a gear against Waterford."

The big question is popped. Ger Loughnane, the team, the future?

"He thanked us for the game. As for the rest of us, I suppose you don't know what's going to happen. We'll go and take a break and see what happens. We're far from dead, that's the only thing I'll tell you. We'll be back. There's more to come, we've young lads who can come in and do the business as well. It's been fantastic but the team has been around for the last number of years."