Allianz Hurling League predictions and GAA betting tips:Tipperary to have too much firepower for the Banner county

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Kilkenny-Limerick double result
2pts 11-2 BoyleSports

No Clare goal v Tipperary
1pt 16-5 BoyleSports

Tipperary to beat Clare
3pts 10-11 BoyleSports

Allianz Hurling League predictions

Kilkenny v Limerick

TG4, 4.30pm Saturday

The first league semi-final serves as a repeat of last year's league and All-Ireland final as Kilkenny take on Limerick, and Derek Lyng's men look to have a tall order on their hands once again.

Limerick have begun to introduce some of their marquee players in recent weeks and handed out a serious beating to Dublin last month, while they were worth much more than the one-point winning margin suggests in their defeat of Tipperary in their penultimate outing.

They fought out a gritty draw against Galway last week given they played well over half the game with 14 men after Shane O'Brien got sent off after 26 minutes.

Four-time All-Star pick Sean Finn returns from injury, while Diarmaid Byrnes, William O'Donoghue, Gearoid Hegarty and Peter Casey are also reinstalled into the starting 15.

Kilkenny are set to field a formidable side as well with TJ Reid in from the start alongside Adrian Mullen and John Donnelly but its difficult to see how they're going to cope with the power of O'Donoghue and Cian Lynch in the middle of the park.

Limerick aren't the quickest out of the blocks and that has resulted in them not asserting control until well into the second-half, best illustrated by the fact that at half-time they were level with Westmeath, down by a point against Tipperary and three points in arrears against Galway.

Kilkenny will be keen to set the tone early on and they could easily find themselves in a decent position at half-time but it might be difficult to maintain that level of energy for the full 70 minutes.

Clare v Tipperary

TG4, 4pm Sunday

Clare are suffering some scoring woes of late and haven't managed a goal in their last four games. While they've countered that with their own defensive solidity, this Tipperary forward line will be extremely difficult to keep at bay.

Jason Forde and Jake Morris are scoring freely and they defeated Antrim with plenty to spare last week, while Clare stuttered past Offaly by a point.

Noel McGrath is working his way back to full fitness for Liam Cahill's men, who are regularly racking up huge scores - the 3-16 they scored against Limerick their lowest total in five games. Meanwhile Clare are struggling in front of goal without Tony Kelly or Shane O'Donnell and they've failed to really ignite in this league campaign.

This looks set to be a close encounter but Tipperary appear much closer to their peak at this stage and should have too much firepower.

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