A much improved performance saw Clare retain their provincial title at Semple Stadium, Thurles in yesterday's Guinness Munster hurling final replay. But in torrential rains, any hopes of last week's splendid hurling being reprised quickly drowned.
What followed was a reasonably gripping first half during which Waterford thrashed a catalogue of good chances wide and then a second half in which the champions opened the throttle and crushed the fast-fading challenge.
It would be inaccurate to subtitle the whole exercise as "Clare make no mistake this time" because the hyped-up aggression at the start of the match cost them their full back Brian Lohan, sent off with Waterford's Michael White for a serious exchange of blows. And the price might even have been higher had referee Willie Barrett applied the rules consistently in dealing with Colin Lynch's tangle with Tony Browne, which was brought to his attention by a linesman.
Before the throw-in, both teams were peppering for confrontation and encroaching half-lines were alternately ordered out of the middle as Barrett tried to start the game. Jamesie O'Connor's stick was even broken before the match got under way and Lohan's sending-off was merely the main event on a programme of battles that broke out in the third minute.
The irony for the usually focused Lohan is that had he kept his head, the red mist would surely have lifted, as the sendings-off appeared to act like a pressure valve. Whereas the remainder of the match was keenly contested, it did not boil again to the level which had threatened anarchy in the opening minutes. As things stand, both Lohan and White look set to miss their sides' next matches.
Indeed, the whole scabrous episode will hopefully give the Munster Council something to ponder when it meets next week.
With the weather dampening the standard of hurling and the early sendings-off cooling the confrontation, Clare killed off the contest as early as the 41st minute when Sean McMahon's 65 was deflected to the net by Conor Clancy. From then on, the winners outscored Waterford 1-9 to 0-4 and never looked troubled.
As expected, the Clare team was changed before the start. Manager Ger Loughnane and his selectors again announced their real team on the day of the match. David Forde, written out of calculations during the week because of an eye injury, returned to the fray in place of Danny Scanlan - improbably named in the team last Tuesday - and Fergie Tuohy replaced listed full forward Eamonn Taaffe.
Waterford made their own late adjustment, with Sean Cullinane not surprisingly failing to overcome his hamstring injury. Mark O'Sullivan replaced him, as in the drawn match, with Tom Feeney moving to full back.
Clare improved in nearly all sectors whereas Waterford lost ground. The hoped-for contributions from Paul Flynn and Ken McGrath were not forthcoming, with Flynn well policed by Frank Lohan and McGrath getting little change from his time in Sean McMahon's company and eventually moving out to centrefield.
This was an area which will have disappointed Waterford as Tony Browne, the most influential performer the last day, was subdued by a combination of the awful conditions and the forceful - and occasionally hair-raising - displays of Lynch and Ollie Baker.
On the wings of the defence, Stephen Frampton and Brian Greene played well, with Greene particularly effective in tailing Jamesie O'Connor, whose defining assets of swift touch and pace were undermined by the conditions.
Although there were game enough displays in the full-back line, Waterford yielded too much space and were hideously punished in the second half, which must have made them regret all the more the lapses of the opening 35 minutes.
Six wides meant that the scoreline didn't reflect the chances they had created and the jittery frees conceded at the other end gave Clare a constant - and unrepresentative - flow of opportunities to move their own total along so that by half-time they were leading 0-7 to 0-5.
There had been a couple of clear cut chances for both teams: Tuohy had a shot deflected out for a 65 in the 24th minute and, 11 minutes later, Flynn had a shot come back off the post but the deflection was cleared by Anthony Daly.
For the second half, Waterford had the advantage of the wind but it wasn't the gusting force of a week ago and they didn't get the tonic of an early goal. But by this stage, neither were Clare well ahead on the scoreboard. What looked most menacing for Waterford was that the mood of the Clare defence made two points look a more secure lead than the eight of a week ago.
The loss of Brian Lohan wasn't as severely felt as might have been expected, because in the open spaces of the two-man inside lines the conditions militated against fast ball and both Frank Lohan and Brian Quinn were composed and tight.
In fact the entire defence was far better than in the drawn match. Gone were the chaotic scenes that Waterford created and exploited seven days previously. McMahon reclaimed his dominant form by shutting out a variety of markers and stamping his mark on the match - which he didn't do last week.
Furthermore, apart from an early free hit wide, his contribution from placed balls was exceptional and left him joint top-scorer with three 65s and one free. Another 65 ended up in the crucial first goal.
On either side of him, Liam Doyle and Daly were also in command although Dave Bennett, on Doyle, was one of Waterford's better players. But Bennett spoilt good general play and two points with some poor wides in the second half.
With seven minutes left, Niall Gilligan closed the book on the match by drilling a great shot into the corner of Brendan Landers' goal to extend the lead to 2-13 to 0-8. That goal punctuated a steady flow of points from all over the pitch so that by the end, 10 Clare players were on the scoreboard.
Daly's acceptance speech eschewed the controversy of last year's "whipping boys" comments and magnanimously drew parallels between the losers and Clare themselves in their formative years.
But for Waterford there's still some way to go.
