Waterford 1-28
Cork 1-24

Waterford are through to their first Munster senior hurling championship final in four years after overcoming Cork this evening in Thurles.

Stephen Bennett landed a dozen frees while Calum Lyons struck an early second-half goal for Liam Cahill’s men that helped put them on the path to victory here.

Tadhg de Burca gave an exhibition at centre-back for the victors as they thwarted the Rebels’ attack enough to claim the four-point victory at Semple Stadium.

Having led by three at the break, the Deise men surged eight in front after Lyons’ superb goal and never really looked back as Patrick Horgan’s injury-time goal proved mere consolation for Cork in the end.

Kevin Moran has the Deise men up and running within a minute of this provincial semi-final prior to Christopher Joyce and Alan Cadogan steering Cork into the lead.

Austin Gleeson levelled matters and the sides traded scores back and forth before singles from Kieran Bennett, Jamie Barron, Gleeson and Stephen Bennett (free) put some daylight between the teams (0-9 to 0-5).

Rebels skipper Patrick Horgan lashed over to stop the rot for the trailers and further scores from Mark Coleman (sideline) and Horgan made it a two-point come the 23rd minute.

Waterford were the side on top though and were keen to convert their possession, with Dessie Hutchinson and Stephen Bennett (3 frees) increasing their lead to half a dozen.

Shane Kingston, Coleman and Horgan halved the deficit as the Deise men went on to take a 0-15 to 0-12 lead at the break.

Waterford manager Liam Cahill celebrates at the final whistle. ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne.

Kieran Bennett and Bill Cooper exchanged scores early in the restart ahead of some excellent work from Barron affording Gleeson the time and space to puck over.

It went from bad to worse for the Leesiders quickly as wing back Lyons rattled their net with a fine finish, making it 1-17 to 0-14, and back-to-back scores from Jack Prendergast and Stephen Bennett (free) had the margin at eight just five minutes into the restart.

Seamus Harnedy’s brace and Joyce’s second of the afternoon were sorely needed scores for Kieran Kingston’s side, as another Stephen Bennett free bumped the Waterford tally up to 1-20.

Horgan and Harnedy made fired over more Cork scores to make it 1-20 to 0-19, with Bennett seeing another free cancelled out by Cooper afterwards.

Barron added one more for the leaders before the water break, with Declan Dalton and Luke Meade being introduced to the fray for the Rebels after the game’s resumption.

However, more frees from the reliable Bennett punished them and the difference would be back at six once Barron broke loose to raise another white flag with nine minutes remaining.

Hutchinson and Bennett kept the scores flowing for Cahill’s side as Cork had no response, with the latter’s 12th free of the afternoon making it 1-27 to 0-23.

Sub Dalton landed a point for the Rebels in the first minute of injury-time and they’d get a glimmer of hope when captain Horgan smashed to the Waterford net in the 73rd minute.

Patrick Curran’s points steadied the Waterford ship though and the Deise men advanced towards a provincial final date against tomorrow’s winners of Limerick and Tipperary.

Waterford - S O'Keeffe; S Fives, C Prunty, S McNulty (0-1); C Lyons (1-2), T De Burca, K Moran (0-1); J Barron (0-3), K Bennett (0-1); J Prendergast (0-1), A Gleeson (0-3), J Fagan; D Hutchinson (0-3), Stephen Bennett (0-12f), J Dillon. Subs: B Power for K Bennett, N Montgomery for J Fagan, D Lyons for J Dillon, P Curran (0-1) for A Gleeson. 

Cork - A Nash; S O’Leary Hayes, D Cahalane, S O’Donoghue; C Joyce (0-1), R Downey, T O’Mahony; B Cooper (0-2), M Coleman (0-2, 1sl); C Lehane (0-2), S Kingston (0-4), D Connery; P Horgan (1-8, 1-3f), S Harnedy (0-3), A Cadogan (0-1). Subs: J O’Connor for D Connery, D Dalton (0-1) for C Lehane, L Meade for A Cadogan, B Hennessy for C Joyce, B Turnbull for S Harnedy. 

Referee - S Stack.

Tweet

Most Read Stories