GAELIC GAMES: The Munster championship finally came to a boil yesterday. Things had warmed up last Sunday and again on Saturday evening, but it took Cork and Waterford, in hurling's home, to get the steam rising and the pot bubbling.

Waterford lost, thus denying themselves a fourth successive Munster final appearance. Still, they came away heartened. The novelty of Waterford facing down the big boys in Munster has long since vanished, but they will have been relieved yesterday to find that they are still a force. You never know before you clear your throat if the voice is still there.

Cork, the All-Ireland champions, hurled with the majesty of their standing. There were some alarming little ailments in the hectic first half, not least Eoin Kelly taking Seán Óg (Ó hAilpín) for four points from play, but they hung in there and Brian Corcoran interceded after the break with a wonderful goal to pull Cork back into life.

Corcoran's intercession was necessary but not isolated. Waterford had stormed through the end of the first half and had begun the second with two snap points to go five points ahead. Then Corcoran chased down a low ball in the right corner.

Fergal Hartley was dilatory about getting it on the stick. Corcoran persisted and dunted it clear, jabbed it into the hand and bore down on Stephen Brenner from a freakish angle. Somehow, the shot squeezed past and into the goal at the far post.

Four minutes later, out on the other side of the park hard against the touchline, Corcoran lobbed a wonderful point over. His side were still a point down but he had handed them the momentum and you felt for the rest of the game as if it was Waterford who were struggling to stay in touch.

"Brian is amazing," said Joe Deane who had scored Cork's early goal. "No ball went into him, (it was) all channelled down wings and corners. Then he pops up. It was the turning point of the game. We were five points down and we needed the boost. It didn't look good for us, to be fair. Then he got a great score from out underneath the stand again. Amazing."

Waterford will come away amazed, but without too many regrets. Ken McGrath, Paul Flynn and Dave Bennett all had fitness questions hanging over them yet still they produced some hard-as-diamond hurling. John Mullane could hardly have been quieter if he'd slept through the afternoon. Waterford will be reassured that there is so much more in them. More games and less pressure for a while will do no harm.

For Cork, the game was a test of continuity. When Donal O'Grady stepped down from the management position last autumn it was widely accepted John Allen was his natural successor.

Allen seems less driven, less intense than his predecessor, though, and through the winter, as Cork's league campaign tailed off, people began to wonder would the same obsessive attention to detail be there for the All-Ireland champions. Yesterday was the answer. John Allen enjoyed the day.

"Ah sure I'm delighted, like," he said genially outside the dressingroom door. "It was a very important game, it was a Munster semi-final but it was more than that; as was on the paper many times during the week, it was Munster champions against All-Ireland champions. T'was a lot of pride and honour at stake. For us, it puts us back in the Munster final. I'm very happy we had the resolve. We started well and faded out. There was a nine-point turnaround in total up to half-time."

And for himself? "Ah, I'm delighted, like," he said again. "There'll always be the measuring of Donal and myself. If I'm half as good as Donal was I'll be very happy."

And with those words and with that result the business of measuring John Allen against Donal O'Grady began to go into decline.

Cork have taken off where they finished in September, but they have weaknesses. Comfortable yesterday for a while, they cruised and then showboated and almost sank. The magnificence of their defence kept them buoyant.

There's a way to go before the summer is spent. In Munster all eyes switch to the pending clash of Tipperary and Clare, two forces of the recent past, whose meetings have the poignant redolence of a clash between Manchester United and Arsenal.

Compelling but slightly off the central stage.