A scintillating first-half performance saw Limerick overrun Cork to be deservedly crowned All-Ireland senior hurling champions for the third time in four seasons.

In doing so, the Treaty County captured back-to-back Liam MacCarthy Cup titles for the first time in their history, a tenth overall, and also smashed the All-Ireland final scoring record with this impressive 3-32 to 1-22 victory.

John Kiely's star-studded team had racked up an incredible 3-18 (3-16 of which came from open play) of their total before the break, a tally that would have been enough to win every single All-Ireland final since 1972.

Played out in front of 40,000 fans at Croke Park, an early goal from Gearoid Hegarty (2-2) after provider Cian Lynch opened the scoring just 12 seconds in showed the champions' intent and a run of five unanswered points between the 20th and 25th minutes saw them pull clear by eight.

Shane Kingston hit back with Cork's only goal moments on from Hegarty's strike, the Douglas man picking up where he left off following a man-of-the-match display in the semi-final, but the Rebels simply had no answer to Limerick's relentless pace and power.

Despite being forced off with injury approaching half-time, Na Piarsaigh's Peter Casey had a big hand to play in the outcome, scoring five points from play, while midfield maestro Lynch once more pulled the strings for the Treaty men and clipped 0-6 over the course of the contest.

Limerick's second goal arrived in the 14th minute when a Diarmaid Byrnes puck-out found Seamus Flanagan, who in turn fed Aaron Gillane (1-6), and the Patrickswell corner-forward made no mistake, blasting to the corner of the net, as they led 2-8 to 1-6 at the first water-break

That margin increased to 13 points by half-time (3-18 to 1-11), Lynch again set up Hegarty for the third Limerick goal, and there was no back for Kieran Kingston's Cork, despite their best efforts to get back into the game which fizzled out somewhat in the second period.

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