WATERFORD SHC FINAL De La Salle 3-13 Ballygunner 1-11:DE LA SALLE are champions of Waterford for the second time in three years after a comprehensive win over last year's champions, Ballygunner, at Walsh Park yesterday.

In the end, De La Salle ran out eight-point winners, but in all honesty it could have been a lot more as Ballygunner were beaten by a far superior team.

The Ballygunner attack looked very lightweight and De La Salle took full advantage with Kevin Moran and Stephen Daniels in particular playing very well in the half-back line.

The hurling was far from free-flowing but De La Salle had more ideas than their opponents and their superiority in the possession stakes helped them into an 0-8 to 0-4 lead at the break. John Mullane was their scorer-in-chief during that first half, scoring from frees and from play where he was ably assisted by centre-forward David Greene who scored twice.

Surprisingly, the champions of 2009 failed to score from play in the first half with all of their scores coming from Stephen Power frees.

Ballygunner needed a good start to the second half but De La Salle opened the scoring with an excellent point from the marauding Mullane.

Ballygunner briefly narrowed the gap back to a more manageable four points, before De La Salle received a major boost when Paudie Nevin seized on a loose ball before running through to score the first goal of the game.

The very next score effectively ended the game as a contest. This time midfielder Dean Twomey ran on to the loose ball before finding the back of the net.

Five minutes later, the De La Salle supporters were in dreamland when Twomey set up Nevin and he grabbed his second goal.

Ballygunner got a late consolation goal from David O’Sullivan.

DE LA SALLE: S Brenner; D Russell, I Flynn, M Doherty; C Watt, K Moran, S Daniels; B Phelan, D Twomey (1-0); P Nevin (2-0), D Greene (0-2), E Barrett; J Mullane (0-9, 0-6 frees), J Keane, J Dillon. Subs: E Madigan (0-1)for J Dillon, L Hayes (0-1)for D Greene, D McGrath for J Keane, P Kennedy for M Doherty.

BALLYGUNNER: S O'Keeffe; J Kearney, W Kiely, A Kirwan; Philip Mahony (0-1), F Hartley, S O'Keeffe; S O'Sullivan, H Barnes; S Power (0-7, 0-5 frees, 0-1 pen, 0-1 65), S Walsh, D O'Sullivan (1-2); T Power, Pauric Mahony, JJ Hutchinson (0-1). Subs: N Waldron for T Power, B Coughlan for J Kearney, M Kearney for JJ Hutchinson.

Referee: M Wadding(Roanmore).