DOWN TO LUCK OF THE DRAW

Stalemate this weekend between Cork and Limerick enough to end Clare reign

- BY PAT NOLAN

COULD we be left with an unprecedented situation where the All-Ireland champions are out of the Championship with a game to play?

Yes, is the answer, if Sunday's Limerick Cork game ends level.

As it is, Clare's chances of progressing to the knockout stages are hanging by a thread as they slipped to a second successive defeat at the hands of Tipperary having drawn their opening game with Cork before losing to Waterford.

It means that Clare have not won a game as All-Ireland champions since the 1998 Munster final replay against Waterford - excluding the subsequent All-Ireland semi-final replay against Offaly that year which they led by three points when it was blown up prematurely.

It is a run of eight games in total.

They close out their provincial campaign away to Limerick on Sunday week and, as things stand, that's a must-win game for them.

But it could all be moot if the meeting of the two All-Ireland favourites on Shannonside this weekend ends in a stalemate.