Waterford hammered Clare by 4-18 to 1-10 in this semi-final play-off at Fraher Field.

A crowd of 2,076 took advantage of the free entry in Dungarvan but they were treated to a one-sided encounter as Waterford eased through to a semi-final meeting with Cork.

In complete contrast to what happened when these two sides were originally meant to meet in Dungarvan a fortnight ago, conditions were perfect tonight for a game of hurling, albeit with a stiff breeze swaying across the pitch.

It was Clare who had that wind behind them in the first half but they played second fiddle for most of the exchanges as Waterford assumed a commanding 1-10 to 0-8 interval lead.

Patrick Curran had the hosts ahead in the opening minute but the Banner County had registered twice themselves by the time Adam Farrell notched Waterford's second score - 0-2 apiece after six minutes.

Curran (free) and Farrell made it 0-4 to 0-2 in Waterford's favour before full forward Conor Gleeson found the net to put daylight between the teams after just ten minutes.

Bobby Duggan stroked over a Clare free - the first of three successive Banner points which had the gap down to two points with ten minutes left in the first half, 1-4 to 0-5.

Michael Kearney and Curran (2) made it double scores before Duggan - whose frees were keeping the visitors in touch - knocked over a point from play. Farrell and Duggan (free) exchanged points and Sean Power's charges got two of the next three points to lead by five at the short whistle, 1-10 to 0-8.

A Cormac Curran goal gave the winners an ideal start to the second half and the game was over as a contest when Stephen Bennett fired a penalty to the net to make it 3-13 to 0-10 after 41 minutes.

Patrick (2) and Cormac Curran added further points to make it a 15-point game. When Clare rallied with a Duggan goal, Waterford's reply was a fourth major, this one coming courtesy of Shane Bennett.

There was no way back for the Banner lads, who have exited the 2013 Munster MHC after successive defeats.

Waterford - S Clancy; B Whelan, S O'Neill, W Hahessy; T Devine, A Gleeson 0-1, Shane Bennett; M Harney, M O'Brien 0-1; A Farrell 0-3, C Roche, C Curran 1-2; P Curran 0-6, C Gleeson 1-0, M Kearney 0-3. Subs: Stephen Bennett 2-0 for Roche, K Daly for Whelan, DJ Foran 0-1 for Kearney, C Breathnach 0-1 for O'Brien, P O'Connor for P Curran.

Clare - L Corbett; S O'Leary, D McCarthy, N Bolton; A McGuane, E Tuohy, S Gleeson; D Conroy, C Downey; B Duggan 1-8, C Corbett, A Morey 0-1; S Ward, D Begley 0-1, C Moloney. Subs: R Taylor for Downey, M Lynch for Moloney, O Donnellan for Corbett, K Fennessy for Conroy.

Ref - A Sherlock (Tipperary) Tweet

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