Kilkenny, who are through to the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Final for the 11th time in 13 seasons as they pursue the historic five-in-a-row, will know who their opponents will be next Sunday when Tipperary take on Waterford in the second semi-final in Croke Park (3.30pm). It will be preceded at 1.30pm by the ESB GAA All-Ireland Minor Football Semi-final between Clare and Dublin.

Tipperary are bidding to set up a re-run of last year's final where they lost to Kilkenny while Waterford are trying to set-up a re-run of the 2008 final when they too lost to Kilkenny.

Waterford go into the game as Munster champions, having beaten Clare and Cork (in a replay) while Tipperary lost to Cork in the Munster quarter-final but revived their All-Ireland ambitions with qualifier wins over Wexford and Offaly before turning in an excellent performance when beating Galway by a point in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

Tipperary and Waterford last clashed in the championship in the 2009 Munster final which Tipperary won by 4-14 to 2-16 but, a year earlier, Waterford had two points to spare (1-20 to 1-18) over Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final. Tipperary are bidding to win the All-Ireland title for the first time since 2001 while Waterford's last success was in 1959 when they beat Kilkenny in a replay.

Paths to the semi-final
Tipperary
Cork 3-15 Tipperary 0-14 (Munster quarter-final)
Tipperary 3-24 Wexford 0-19 (Qualifier Round 1)
Tipperary 0-21 Offaly 1-12 (Qualifier Round 3)
Tipperary 3-17 Galway 3-16 (All-Ireland quarter-final)
Average For: 2-18 Average Against: 2-15

Tipperary scorers
Eoin Kelly....................1-33 (0-22 frees, 0-5 '65s')
Lar Corbett.................2-10
Ger Ryan.....................1-9
Seamus Callanan.........1-2
Brendan Maher...........0-5
Noel McGrath..............0-5 (0-1 free)
John O'Brien...............0-3
Darragh Egan..............1-0
David Young...............0-3
Patrick Maher............0-3
Shane McGrath..........0-1
Timmy Hammersley..0-1
Conor O'Mahony......0-1

Waterford
Waterford 0-22 Clare 1-15 (Munster semi-final)
Waterford 2-15 Cork 2-15 (Munster final)
Waterford 1-16 Cork 1-13 (Munster final replay)
Average For: 1-18; Average Against: 1-16
Waterford scorers
Eoin Kelly.......................... 1-22 (0-16 frees, 0-1'65')
John Mullane......................0-10
Tony Browne......................1-1 (0-1 free)
Kevin Moran.......................0-4
Stephen Molumphy...........0-3
Declan Prendergast............0-3
Dan Shanahan....................1-0
Maurice Shanahan.............0-2
Seamus Prendergast..........0-2
Shane O'Sullivan...............0-2 (0-1 sideline)
Richie Foley.......................0-1
Shane Walsh......................0-1
Brian O'Halloran..............0-1
Ken McGrath.....................0-1

Last Ten Championship Meetings
2009 - Tipperary 4-14 Waterford 0-16
2008 - Waterford 1-20 Tipperary 1-18
2006 - Waterford 1-22 Tipperary 3-13
2006 - Tipperary 3-14 Waterford 1-12
2004 - Waterford 4-10 Tipperary 3-12
2002 - Waterford 2-23 Tipperary 3-12
2000 - Tipperary 0-17 Waterford 0-14
1998 - Waterford 0-21 Tipperary 2-12
1996 - Tipperary 1-14 Waterford 1-11
1995 - Tipperary 4-23 Waterford 1-11
Tipperary 5 Waterford 5

Last championship meeting
Tipperary 4-14 Waterford 2-16 (2009 Munster final) Waterford led by 1-2 to 0-1 after six minutes before Tipperary scored six unanswered points. A John Mullane goal put Waterford back in front but goals by Seamus Callanan, Eoin Kelly and Lar Corbett set Tipperary on their way to a 3-10 to 2-4 half-time lead.
A second goal by Corbett in the 41st minute helped Tipperary into a 4-14 to 2- 10 lead after 61 minutes before a late Waterford rally yielded six points.

Tipperary: Brendan Cummins; Paddy Stapleton, Paul Curran, Conor O'Brien; Declan Fanning, Conor O'Mahony (0-1), Pádraic Maher; James Woodlock, Shane McGrath (0-1); Pat Kerwick (0-1), Seamus Callanan (1-1), John O'Brien (0-1); Noel McGrath (0-3), Eoin Kelly (1-3), Lar Corbett (2-2). Subs: Brendan Maher for Curran, Willie Ryan for Kelly, Benny Dunne (0-1) for Woodlock, Hugh Maloney for Kerwick, Micheal Webster for O'Brien.

Waterford: Clinton Hennessy; Eoin Murphy, Declan Prendergast, Noel Connors; Tony Browne, Michael Walsh, Aidan Kearney; Kevin Moran, Shane O'Sullivan; James Nagle, Seamus Prendergast, Jack Kennedy; John Mullane (1-5), Stephen Molumphy (0-2), Eoin Kelly (1-7). Subs: Dan Shanahan (0-1) for Kennedy, Eoin McGrath for Nagle, Richie Foley (0-1) for Moran; Maurice Shanahan for Seamus Prendergast.

Last Competitive Clash
Tipperary 1-19 Waterford 2-16 (NHL, 28 March 2010), Thurles
Eoin Kelly pointed a late free to earn a draw after the sides had been level on ten occasions. Tipperary led by 1-17 to 1-12 after 48 minutes before Waterford battled back to earn a share of the spoils.

Tipperary: B Cummins; P Curran, P Stapleton, D Fanning; C O'Mahony, S Maher, B Maher (0-2); S McGrath, G Ryan (0-2); L Corbett (0-4), N McGrath (1-1), T Hammersley 0-6 (4f, 1'65), J O'Brien (0-1), P Kelly (0-2). Subs: S Hennessy (0-1) for McGrath; M Webster for Kelly.

Waterford: C Hennessy; E Murphy, M O'Brien, N Connors; A Kearney, J Nagle (0-1), S Fives; E Kelly (1-7, all frees), R Foley; S Prendergast (0-1), K Moran, S O'Sullivan (0-3); S Molumphy (1-1), D Shanahan (0-2), T Ryan. Subs: M Shanahan for Kearney; J Mullane (0-1) for Moran (ht), B Phelan for Ryan.

Last five All-Ireland semi-final appearances
Tipperary
2009: Tipperary 6-19 Limerick 2-7
2008: Waterford 1-20 Tipperary 1-18
2003: Kilkenny 3-18 Tipperary 0-15
2002: Kilkenny 1-20 Tipperary 1-16
2001: Tipperary 3-12 Wexford 0-10 (replay)

Waterford
2009: Kilkenny 2-23 Waterford 3-15
2008: Waterford 1-20 Tipperary 1-18
2007: Limerick 5-11 Waterford 2-15
2006: Cork 1-16 Waterford 1-15
2004: Kilkenny 3-12 Waterford 0-18

All-Ireland Semi-final Records
Tipperary will be appearing in their 31thth All-Ireland semi-final on Sunday.
They won 23, lost six and drew one of their previous 30 appearances.
Waterford have played ten semi-finals, winning four and losing six.

Tipperary wins: 23 (1887-96-98-1900-06-08-09-13-16-22-25-30-45-49-50-58-
71-88-89-91-97-2001-2009)
Tipperary defeats: 6 (1924-1987-1993-2002-2003-2008)
Tipperary draws: 1 (2001 v Wexford)
Waterford wins: 4 (1938-48-57-2008)
Waterford defeats: 6 (1998-2002-2004-2006-2007-2009)

GAA HURLING ALL-IRELAND SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP SHORTS
*Shane Dooley (Offaly) has set the target for top scorer of the 2010 Championship. He has scored 3-41 (50 points), 13 points clear of Cork's Ben O'Connor (2-31) whose campaign, like Dooley's, has finished. Eoin Kelly (Tipperary) who will be in action in next Sunday's second semi-final is on 1-33 (36 points) so he looks certain to overtake O'Connor and would have a good chance of going top if Tipperary played in the final. Waterford's top scorer is another Eoin Kelly who is on 1-22 (25 points). Henry Shefflin is Kilkenny's top scorer on 1-21 (24 points).

*Waterford, who are in the semi-final for a fifth successive year, have won only one of seven All-Ireland semi-finals since 1998. It came two years ago when they beat Tipperary. Otherwise they lost to Kilkenny (1998-2004-2009), Clare (2002), Cork (2006) and Limerick (2007).

*Tipperary and Waterford have met 38 times in the championship with the score standing at 27-10 in Tipperary's favour while there was one draw. That's not including three walkovers which Tipperary received in 1889-1895-1922. Five of Waterford's wins have come since 1998.

* If Tipperary win on Sunday it will be the 8th time since 1997 (the year the format was first changed) that a team which was beaten in the provincial Championships reached the All-Ireland final. The others were Tipperary (1997), Offaly (1998-2000), Clare (2002), Kilkenny (2004), Limerick (2007), Waterford (2008).

GAA HURLING ALL-IRELAND SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010
Leinster
May 22: First round: Laois 1-13 Carlow 0-10, Portlaoise.
May 29: Quarter-final: Galway 2-22 Wexford 1-14, Nowlan Park.
May 30: Quarter-final: Offaly 2-26 Antrim 3-16 (After extra-time), Parnell Park.
June 6: Quarter-final: Dublin 0-25 Laois 0-16, Nowlan Park.
June 20: Semi-finals: Kilkenny 4-19 Dublin 0-12; Galway 2-19 Offaly 3-16, Croke Park.
June 26: Semi-final replay: Galway 3-17 Offaly 2-18 Portlaoise.
July 4: Final: Kilkenny 1-19 Galway 1-12, Croke Park.

Munster
May 30: First round: Cork 3-15 Tipperary 0-14, Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
June 7: Semi-final: Waterford 0-22 Clare 1-15, Thurles.
June 20: Semi-final: Cork 2-19 Limerick 0-12, Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
July 11: Final: Cork 2-15 Waterford 2-15, Thurles.
July 17: Replay: Waterford 1-16 Cork 1-13, Thurles (After extra-time)

Ulster
May 8: Monaghan 1-15 Fermanagh 2-10, Enniskillen; Armagh 3-23 Donegal 1-
12, Letterkenny; Tyrone 6-24 Cavan 1-14, Omagh.
May 15: London 3-16 Monaghan 1-15, Casement Park; Armagh 3-20 Tyrone 2-9, Casement Park.
May 29: Quarter-finals: Down 4-24 Armagh 0-9, Casement Park; London 2-12 Derry 0-15, Casement Park.
June 13: Semi-final. Down v London - Not played
June 27: Final: Antrim 4-22 Down 1-12, Casement Park.

All-Ireland Senior Championships
June 26: All-Ireland qualifier - preliminary round: Carlow 1-19 Laois 3-12, Dr. Cullen Park.
July 3: Qualifiers - Phase 1: Antrim 2-18 Carlow 3-12, Casement Park; Tipperary 3-24 Wexford 0-19, Thurles
July 10: Qualifiers - Phase 2: Offaly 1-19 Limerick 1-13, Tullamore; Dublin 2- 22 Clare 0-15, Croke Park.
July 17: Qualifiers - Phase 3: Antrim 1-17 Dublin 0-19, Croke Park
July 18: Qualifiers - Phase 3: Tipperary 0-21 Offaly 1-12, Portlaoise.
July 25: All-Ireland quarter-finals: Tipperary 3-17 Galway 3-16, Croke Park; Cork 1-25 Antrim 0-19, Croke Park.
August 8: Semi-final: Kilkenny 3-22 Cork 0-19 Cork, Croke Park.
Next Sunday: Semi-final: Waterford v Tipperary, Croke Park.
September 5: Final: Kilkenny v Tipperary/Waterford Croke Park.
September 26: Replay if required. Tweet

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