All-Ireland SHC Semi-final: Kilkenny 3-18 Tipperary 0-15: It wasn't entirely unexpected, but the scale of Kilkenny's victory in yesterday's Guinness All-Ireland semi-final surpassed the worst fears of neutrals.

The champions' superiority was total in a second half during which they blitzed the faltering challenge of a Tipperary side which had looked the better team for the first 35 minutes.

The quality of the winners' performance is attested in the dominance of the defence after the interval, when Tipperary's forwards scored only two points from play, and the remorselessness of an attack that savagely hunted the goal they knew might break their opponents.

To this can be added 16 wides and a string of miraculous saves from Tipp goalkeeper Brendan Cummins, who merited the man of the match award for his heroic acrobatics as Kilkenny went for the kill.

This was the worst beating Tipperary ever got off their neighbours, and the historical imbalance that led, up until last year, to just one Kilkenny win in 80 years of championship hurling has been thoroughly laid to rest. The result also suggests that concerns about the lay-off provincial champions have to endure before All-Ireland semi-finals aren't as justified as had been feared.

Taken in tandem with Cork's win - admittedly in a replay - on Saturday, the penultimate stage of the championship has featured cumulative wins of 25 points for the Munster and Leinster champions.

Behind the natural admiration for such an aggressively accomplished victory must lie astonishment at how completely Tipperary folded in the second half. When the tempo went up they were incapable of resisting, and even on the line changes weren't made until the final quarter by which stage the match was more or less out of sight. And each of the replacements had all the impact of reinforcements on the Somme.

The match largely followed the template of the Leinster final. Questions were asked of Kilkenny in the first half - although to be fair to Tipp, these questions were more searching than Wexford's backs-to-the-wall defending and late scoring spurt.

Then questions were answered in the second half in such a manner as to make them look like pedantry.

But there was a surge of self-belief among the Tipperary support in a large crowd of 60,000 as the first half progressed through 35 minutes of tit-for-tat scoring. Aside from parity and better on the scoreboard, Tipp were applying pressure to try to expose Kilkenny's fault lines.

Before the start, the challengers had the anticipated fillip to morale of Tommy Dunne taking the field at centre back, despite his ankle injury. Less expected was the move of Henry Shefflin, whom Dunne was presumably psyched up to mark, to the wing.

If this was a calculation by Kilkenny manager Brian Cody that Paul Kelly's more free-form and less sticky marking might allow Shefflin more opportunities to go for scores, the move was a success. What Cody wouldn't have bargained for was his leading forward's strangely wayward shooting. Over the 70 minutes Shefflin clocked up seven wides - on top of 1-7 - and, for virtually the entire match, Tipperary kept him and DJ Carey to two points from play.

Tipp's star turn during the first half was Eamonn Corcoran, who dominated the right wing, consigning Tommy Walsh to anonymity. His sharp positioning and ball-winning were complemented by good deliveries into the forwards, where Eoin Kelly was threatening havoc but ominously, was also monopolising the scoring, with all five of his side's points in the opening quarter.

In the 20th minute, with the scores level at 0-6 each, Tipperary thought they had a score when Cummins's quick puck-out was whistled back after Corcoran had placed a lovely ball for Kelly to put in the net. They wouldn't get as close to a goal again.

But Tipperary did nudge ahead by half-time, 0-11 to 0-9, taking some nice points and putting pressure on Kilkenny's half backs.

There was always the danger that two points might melt away pretty quickly if the champions threw a bit of coal on the fire, but, all told, Tipp had reason to be pleased at half-time, even if - as in the Leinster final - they were relying on below-par finishing by their opponents.

They weren't being hurt on the wings - to the extent that Cody moved Martin Comerford out to the wing a good bit earlier than the switch is usually made. And while John Hoyne was more than justifying his move to centre forward with a bustling and energetic display, the scoring threat was confined to Eddie Brennan, whose three points from play exposed Tom Costello and hinted at what was to come.

This was one of DJ Carey's more subdued performances.

Normally when the team is winning well he is an instrument of devastation, but on this occasion he didn't score from play. There was a moment in the 31st minute when he revived memories of the spring-heeled solo that set up Jimmy Coogan for the decisive goal in last year's semi-final between the teams. On this occasion, however, his burst forward was halted by Paul Curran, who had a good first half at full back.

After the break there was no disguising Kilkenny's intentions. It was as if they had calculated that Tipperary would not withstand the concession of a goal. And in a further similarity with the Leinster final, they went for the jugular within minutes of the restart, and the eventual goal scorer again was Brennan.

The first action of the half saw Brennan going for goal only to be thwarted by Cummins, who also scrambled away Carey's follow-up, at the expense of a 65, which the latter converted.

Six minutes later, Cummins again saved from Brennan and, in what was Tipperary's last flicker, John Carroll hit a turnover point at the other end.

But the hour wasn't long delayed. In the 45th minute Hoyne rode a foul and flicked the ball to Brennan who did one of his familiar circuits of the cover before hitting a shot that Cummins couldn't stop - in other words, a very good shot.

With their noses in front, Kilkenny kicked for home and the killer goal followed four minutes later. And it was very deliberate. In a sequence that will probably be rerun long into the future because of Cummins's virtuosity, four short-range efforts at goal were made by Walsh (twice), Brennan and Shefflin. The post and a defender kept out the first two and Cummins the others.

Each time Kilkenny disdained the handy point, and on the fifth attempt Walsh pierced the blockade for a 2-12 to 0-14 lead.

Thereafter there was no contest. Kilkenny were winning everywhere. Their half backs soared, with Seán Dowling even managing to block Eoin Kelly's 47th-minute free. Noel Hickey and Michael Kavanagh had shown their class throughout the 70 minutes and were untroubled in the second half.

By the end Shefflin got his goal. In the 69th minute Paddy Mullally's long ball was broken for his team-mate, now at full forward, to lash home.

This is on course to be some year for Kilkenny. It's the county's fifth final in six years. Victory over Cork would bring about their third back-to-back All-Ireland title in successive decades - adding 2003 to 1993 and '83.

Such an achievement would be the first of the modern qualifier era and all the more notable for that.

KILKENNY: 1 J McGarry; 2 M Kavanagh, 3 N Hickey, 4 J Ryall; 5 S Dowling, 6 P Barry, 7 JJ Delaney; 8 D Lyng (0-2), 9 P Mullally; 10 J Hoyne (0-1), 11 H Shefflin (1-7, 5 frees), 12 T Walsh (1-0); 13 DJ Carey (capt, 0-3, all 65s), 14 M Comerford, 15 E Brennan (1-4). Subs: 22 J Coogan (0-1) for Walsh (58 mins).

TIPPERARY: 1 B Cummins; 2 T Costello, 3 P Curran, 4 M Maher; 5 E Corcoran, 6 T Dunne, 7 P Kelly (0-1); 8 B Dunne, 9 E Enright (0-1); 10 M O'Leary, 14 C Gleeson (0-2), 11 J Carroll (0-1); 13 E Kelly (0-8, 7 frees), 15 L Corbett, 12 B O'Meara (0-1). Subs: 25 N Morris for Corbett (54 mins), 27 P O'Brien (0-1) for O'Leary (59 mins), 23 B Horgan for Enright (63 mins), 24 D Kennedy for Costello (65 mins), 17 E Brislane for T Dunne (70 mins).

Yellow cards Kilkenny: P Barry (15 mins). Tipperary: T Costello (63 mins), E Corcoran (70mins) Red cards: None.

Referee: P O'Connor (Limerick).