TIPPERARY are unchanged for Sunday's Munster hurling final from the side that dethroned Limerick as Munster champions last month. Given the emphatic nature of the victory, this is not surprising.

Philip O'Dwyer, at left corner forward, was thought to be under pressure from Aidan Flanagan, but retains his place, as does Aidan Butler at centrefield whose selection was also under scrutiny after he was substituted by Brendan Carroll in the semi-final at Thurles.

Manager Len Gaynor isn't getting carried away with the achievement of beating Limerick for the first time in four championship meetings and acknowledges the pressure the team was under in the opening quarter.

"Yeah, I was satisfied enough, but we've lots of room for improvement and we'd hope to be stepping it up from there. We were a bit shaky early on alright. I thought Clare were quite good. Cork put it up to them strongly and Clare rallied after looking a bit vulnerable at half-time."

A couple of changes have been made to the substitutes' bench, where Paul Delaney and Johnny Enright - named for the Limerick match - are replaced by Brian Gaynor, son of Len, and Eugene O'Neill, last year's outstanding minor full forward.

Opponents Clare make two changes to the side that beat Cork in Limerick a month ago. Both changes are in the full forward line where Stephen McNamara, who came on in the last match and scored the decisive goal (as the selectors were getting ready to replace him), is retained in the right corner in place of Sixmilebridge's Niall Gilligan, whom he replaced in Limerick.

At full forward, Barry Murphy, who wasn't considered for selection the last day, comes in at full forward in place of Conor Clancy who was replaced at half-time the last day by David Forde.

Murphy's precise role remains to be seen as the full forward position was filled to great effect against Cork in the second half by Ger 'Sparrow' O'Loughlin, who is named in his customary left corner forward spot for Sunday.

Fergal Hegaity, who had to cry off before that match after a late fitness test, is recovered but his position at centrefield goes to Colin Lynch who stepped in for him against Cork and had a sound match. Eamonn Taaffe returns to the bench with Ken Morrissey dropping out.

Both teams in Sunday's Leinster football semi-final have deferred selection until tomorrow. Kildare are hoping that captain and centre back Glen Ryan, whose inspirational general play was supplemented by a converted penalty (a rare enough commodity these days) in the last round against Laois will recover from injury.

Opponents Meath are also considering their options, not so much because of injury but because of the increased options afforded by the return from injury of Martin O'Connell and Paddy Reynolds, regulars on last year's successful team who missed the first round against Dublin.

Their places in that match were filled with some distinction by Donal Curtis and Nigel Nestor and the outcome of the selectors' deliberations will be interesting.

For one of that management team, Frank Foley, the match will bring back some happy memories. The last time the counties met at this level was 10 years ago in the only championship start of Foley's career.

He is unmoved by the presumption in Kildare that Meath represent a better chance of success in the semi-final than Dublin - who have beaten them in three championship meetings this decade.

"I can kind of see where they're coming from," he says. "They haven't played Meath in a while except in League matches where they've beaten us the last two years and heavily back in February. They'll probably be playing 2 or 13 of the fellas who played that day.

"The humour in the county is good. The word is that there's no point beating Dublin if Kildare knock us out the next day - which is a change from the school of thought you used get that once Dublin were beaten, you'd enough done. There'll be an edge alright, we've a fairly big Kildare border in Enfield where people from both counties mix.

Finally in Ulster, both hurling finalists have yet to announce their selections. Antrim won't do so until tomorrow as they have a number of injury concerns. Seamus Bailie and Ryan McNaughton are extremely doubtful with an ankle injury and a broken finger, respectively. Paul Jennings, with a stomach strain, and Gregory O'Kane, suffering from a dead leg, are also causing concern.

Down are expected to announce their line-up today.