A good day's hurling all round. The Thurles pitch making a passable imitation of a summer ground and Waterford and Tipperary setting about each other like it really mattered. Could have been worse. Tipperary won but both sides came away well pleased with what they had seen.
Tipperary duly qualify for a semi-final clash with Clare having won all their league games in Thurles. In an ideal world, perhaps they could they have done without that.
"It's not an ideal world is it?" said team manager Nicky English, "You take what you get. This is a young team and they have a lot to learn. Within six weeks they are going to get some serious tests."
And as for the semi-final with Clare?
"Because they are young, etc, I don't think getting beaten would be a help. I haven't worked out the psychology of it. Is it better for us to win or lose. I don't know. We had a lot of changes today. From what was a fairly settled team we have become fairly unsettled in the last few weeks. We have to become a bit more settled. That's the main thing."
Tipperary began the game yesterday like a team with a point to prove. Declan Brown wangled a ball to Paul Shelley in the opening minute and somehow it stayed out of the net as it worked its way across the Waterford square.
A minute later they reversed the order, Shelley doing well to feed Browne this time. Finding himself behind the Waterford full-back line but with white shirts converging urgently Browne did what he does best and kicked to the Waterford net. The goal was to be the decisive margin at the end of the day.
Shelley added a point to Browne's goal within a minute and it looked momentarily as if Waterford would struggle to escape from the tidal wave of early Tipperary pressure. They steadied, though, getting a grip in the half backs, taking the pressure off a full-back line which missed the hamstrung Sean Cullinane and by becoming a bit snappier in midfield.
By the sixth minute when Paul Flynn scorched a goal chance just wide we knew we had a game on our hands and the 10,790 crowd sat back pleased it had made the journey.
The teams went in at half-time with just a point between them, Declan Browne having been denied another goal when his forehand swipe at a stray sliotar got him no better reward than being flattened by the out-rushing keeper. Flynn equalised for Waterford and Ger Maguire was left to restore Tipperary's advantage before tea was served.
After the interval the wides kept coming for Waterford, each one more costly than that which preceded it. Liam Cahill and Tomas Dunne stretched Tipperary's advantage and Aidan Ryan had a chance to make an emphatic impression when he dodged and barrelled past a couple of defenders only to drive his final shot wide.
Cullinane and Brian Greene were introduced by Waterford and the defence got a little stingier, a parsimony which should have been rewarded midway through the half when Flynn's stinging shot brought a great save from Brendan Cummins.
That was the way it settled. Waterford splashing with good chances. Tipperary hurling economically. Flynn crashed a late free off the bar but by then Tipperary's rhythm had earned them the game.
For both sides this was league business but it was also audition time, which lent some urgency to the proceedings. Waterford certainly had a few players determined to leave a mark in the mentors' mind.
As such it was a disappointing day for Billy O'Sullivan, who was largely contained, and a good day for Tony Browne, who began the afternoon as a wing back but moved to midfield as the need for a presence there became more pressing. Waterford finished with Peter Queally, Stephen Frampton and Greene across the half-back line and that would be appease most people on May 30th.
Tipperary, unsettled by injuries and beginning to fret about the absence of muscle and experience, made it something of an old-timers' day by the final whistle, with Declan Carr being joined on the field by Aidan Ryan. Take away their huffing and puffing though and the encouragement lay in the performances of figures like Cahill and Dunne who picked up the tempo and the responsibility anytime Waterford muscled their way back into the game.
For Waterford it was a day like several others which they have endured this spring. Their hurling deserved better reward, the breaks went the other way but the encouraging signs were sufficient to buoy them.
Waterford lost by the width of a goal, peppered Tipperary's goal with 15 wides and hit the crossbar with a free in the last minute. Little wonder Gerald McCarthy was upbeat enough.
"We outhurled them at various stages of the game," he said. "But we didn't take our chances." Waterford's training is designed to bear fruit on May 30th when they take on Limerick: until then they enter the netherworld of challenges.
TIPPERARY: B Cummins; D Fahy, F Heaney, L Sheedy; R Ryan, C Gleeson, E Corcoran; E Enright, D Carr (0-1); P Ormonde, G Maguire (0-2), T Dunne (0-4, all frees); L Cahill (0-4), P Shelley (0-1), D Browne (1-1). Subs: A Ryan (0-1) for P Ormonde (17 mins); B O'Meara for G Maguire (41 mins); B Horgan for E Corcoran (50 mins).
WATERFORD: B Landers; T Feeney, G Harris, B Flannery; P Queally (0-1, a free), S Frampton, T Browne; F Hartley (0-1), D Bennett (0-1); D Shanahan (0-1), B O'Sullivan (0-1), K McGrath (0-2); M White (0-2), A Lannon (0-1), P Flynn (0- 4, three frees). Subs: S Cullinane for G Harris (40 mins); B Greene for Lannon (41 mins); A Kirwan for Bennett (56 mins).
Referee: T McIntyre (Antrim).
