IT was a memorable day. It was a defining moment. It was the stuff of folklore. It was the type of incident that sends Guinness advertising copywriters into ecstasies. It was the climax of one of the most famous Munster finals ever.

Semple Stadium, 29 July 1973. Limerick and Tipperary were level, 6-6 to 2-18, and the match was in injury time when the men from Shannonside were awarded a 70, as it was then. Up stepped Richie Bennis with his Gary Kirby-style of freetaking. In the immortal words of Miche�l O'Hehir, "He bends?he lifts?he strikes." The sliotar just about found its target. Limerick were provincial champions for the first time since Mackey's Greyhounds were kings in 1955.

Bennis's immortal point led on to further fortune, for that September his team won the All Ireland, beating Kilkenny in the final. More history, for this was Limerick's first McCarthy Cup triumph in 33 years. It remains, almost incredibly, their most recent.

Hard to believe. Even harder to accept for Limerick hurling folk.

As a player, Richie Bennis was the man against Tipp in 1973. As a manager, he's attempting to be the man now, assisted by Bernie Hartigan, one of his teammates on the team of the early 1970s, and the aforementioned Gary Kirby, Bennis's nephew. Together they're sending out a side intent on recording Limerick's first win in the Munster championship since the 2001 semi-final. That's a lot of matches and a lot of disappointments, many of them narrow ones.

Limerick's future prosperity is finely balanced right now. At the end of a successful season, players often refer to a purple patch they struck along the way, a period in which everything seemed to go right for them. Where beforehand they were losers, now they were winners. When a team hits such a purple patch, it's not that they magically discover a hitherto hidden trove of ability; it's more that they stumble forward together into a new, a different, a winning attitude. They seize the day.

Such is the task ahead of Bennis's team this afternoon: to step out of their losing skins and transform themselves into a new, successful Limerick.

It can be done. But it won't just happen. Seize the day, remember.

A united camp will be essential.

Limerick have rarely had a united camp these past 10 years. Disarray has been a constant feature of life on Shannonside. (Of late the bug seems to have hopped across the river to Clare. ) Yet Bennis's baptism of fire as manager last summer offered hope for the future.

He took over a Limerick team on the floor following their Cusack Park trouncing by Clare and instilled so much spirit and organisation in them within a short space of time that they proceeded to run the reigning champions Cork to a point in the All Ireland quarter-final - a quarterfinal the rank outsiders might well have stolen had the game lasted another five minutes. Taking into account the nadir Limerick were coming from and the identity of the opposition, one of the most thoughtful and dedicated outfits to be found across the spectrum of Irish sport, this was a remarkable performance and an indication that lack of ability is not an issue. Bear in mind, moreover, that Bennis didn't have the services of Peter Lawlor, who in 2005 had been very close to being an All Star, to call on then. He has him now.

After a bright start to this year's National League, when they beat Tipperary in Nenagh on the opening day, things quickly went downhill and Limerick found themselves in a relegation play-off against Offaly. But sometimes the darkest hour is just before the dawn; Limerick stuck six goals past their opponents, comfortably saw off Laois in the concluding play-off, secured their Division 1 status for 2008 and approach today's game in much better fettle than seemed possible a couple of months ago.

What's more, the law of averages tells us that Limerick's championship woes - they haven't beaten Tipperary since the replayed 1996 Munster final whereas Tipp have beaten them on no fewer than six occasions (one after extra-time) in the interim - have to end sometime. If the underdogs are truly united and their heads are right, today could well be the day. Certainly they possess any number of accomplished players in Lawlor, Damien Reale, Stephen Lucey, Mark Foley, the yet-toblossom Andrew O'Shaughnessy and the Morans.

The fixture represents a large banana skin for the visitors, no argument there. In the second year of his second coming, Babs Keating is expected to deliver. See off Limerick here and Tipperary will be in a Munster final they'll have a big chance of winning. But they cannot continue to rely almost exclusively on Eoin Kelly, whose brother Paul will be a significant loss in the other corner. The introduction of James Woodlock, man of the match in last year's drawn All Ireland under-21 final, should give them a lift at midfield, while Miche�l Webster might have a part to play too at some stage.

An excellent centre-back with Toomevara, Benny Dunne is entrusted with the same role this afternoon;

the move represents a bit of a risk on Tipp's part, as there's always a gap between the club and the intercounty in regard to the difficulties of manning a central position like this one.

The Tipp half-forward line will also have to win plenty of ball. Can they?

Here the jury is out.

Another imponderable is the identity of the Lar Corbett who'll take the field. Though he nearly beat Waterford on his own in the National League quarter-final at Nowlan Park on Easter Sunday, the Thurles Sarsfields man too often gives the appearance of a chap who's not switched on fully. I'm not sure about his positioning at fullforward either; I'd be more inclined to place Corbett in the corner or the wing, where he'd have more room and would be able to come onto the ball, and put Eoin Kelly on the edge of the square. That way Kelly would similarly be less confined and Tipperary would have wider options.

I don't think Limerick are a better team than Tipp. I reckon there's a terrific chance they may be more determined, however; God knows they have plenty of reason to be. They will play it tough, that's a certainty, but they must hold their discipline and avoid handing Eoin Kelly soft frees on a plate. Assuming they can, I give Limerick the vote to spring a surprise.

If Tipperary will start as favourites at the Gaelic Grounds, there's not a shadow of a doubt that Kilkenny will start as the most white-hot favourites imaginable at O'Moore Park. Offaly haven't beaten them in the championship this century. Not to put too fine a point on it, Offaly have barely kept the ball pucked out to them in the championship this century.

Besides, recent form insists that there can only be one result. Offaly were relegated from Division 1 whereas Kilkenny reached the final, losing narrowly to Waterford. Not that the latter result will be any comfort to the challengers, as it will merely have helped Brian Cody's side refocus more sharply for the championship.

We're into finger-crossing territory here. Crossing our fingers that Offaly give a good account of themselves and that the gap between the sides is nowhere near as gaping as it was two years ago, when Kilkenny annihilated John McIntyre's charges on a scoreline of 6-28 to 0-15. I don't imagine it will be, but it'll still be a surprise if the champions win by less than seven points.

McIntyre, incidentally, constitutes one very good reason to wish the underdogs the best of luck today. He took on a poisoned chalice. Not only that, he persevered with it when a lot of serious hurling men in Offaly didn't want to know.

Blinded by the dazzle of the Shefflins and the � hAilp�ns, we often forget that hurling is full of unfashionable causes. We shouldn't.

Where would we be without the John McIntyres? And what will happen if we ever run out of them?