"The lads were absolutely superb, we won ball, we broke ball, broke lines, broke tackles, attacked their '21', but we were hacked down, full stop, that's the story."

Limerick boss John Kiely wasn't happy with referee Diarmuid Kirwan's display in their Allianz HL Division 1B defeat to Wexford.

"I'm delighted with the fighting qualities, we played well in patches, though we can do better than that."

Kiely's Model County counterpart Davy Fitzgerald was satisfied with the result but not the performance.

"We're delighted to eke it out in the face of a Kilkenny onslaught. It was very, very rewarding."

Waterford claimed Kilkenny's scalp in Nowlan Park and, naturally enough, manager Derek McGrath was in good form afterwards.

"They had the wind in the first-half so they had more of the ball. It was travelling down the field to their scoring area more so than ours but I thought we were competitive. There was very little in it and that's the way it went all the way to the finish."

Brian Cody and the Cats will look to bounce back against Clare next Sunday.

"It's a risk when you play so many players together making their debut, we had five tonight in what was a tough game against tough opposition - and we brought in two more, so half the team was making its debut in the league. That's a risk but how else are they going to learn? It's chicken and egg."

The Rebel Countys' newcomers are impressing manager Kieran Kingston.

"When we look at the stats we'll probably be upset with the number of opposition puck-outs we lost."

Cork's puck-outs were a big part of the problem for Clare, according to joint-manager Gerry O'Connor.

"We just came to win and we're delighted with that to be honest. It's never going to be pretty and I'm not a fan of this night time hurling to be honest."

Tipperary and Michael Ryan got the job done at Croke Park on Saturday evening.

"We went out tonight with high hopes of trying to give a good performance tonight and I'm disappointed with how the performance panned out."

Things didn't go according to plan for Ger Cunningham and Dublin against the All-Ireland champions.

"Next week is a big week. We have Wexford coming to Galway and they have been doing really well up to now."

After watching his side dish out a 26 point hammering to Offaly, Galway's Micheál Donoghue turned his attention to the upcoming visit of Wexford.

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