Munster Senior Hurling Championship

TIPPERARY 2-30 WATERFORD 0-18

By John Fallon at Semple Stadium

Tipperary finished strongly to notch their second win of the Munster SHC and condemn Waterford to a second loss in front of a crowd of 22,833 at Semple Stadium.

They got their opening goal when there were just three points between the sides and pushed on from there to outscore Waterford by 2-10 to 0-1 in the closing 16 minutes of the contest.

Waterford trailed by 0-16 to 0-10 at the interval, having opted to play against the breeze in the opening half.

And it was Tipperary who set the early pace, picking off 0-10 in the opening 18 minutes before they registered their first wide.

John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer and John McGrath combined well to hit three points each in the opening half, while midfielder Michael Breen did likewise from out the field.

And with Jason Forde and Ronan Made both hitting superb sidelines to extend Tipperary’s lead, Waterford’s task increased.

It became a more uphill task when Conor Gleeson, who had earlier been booked along with Seamie Callanan in an off the ball incident, picked up a second yellow card when he fouled Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher five minutes from the break.

Forde pointed the resultant free and John McGrath and John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer added points to lead by 0-16 to 0-7 approaching the break.

But Waterford were given some hope with points from Austin Gleeson and a couple of frees from Pauric Mahony to cut the gap to six at the interval.

It would have been closer but a goal effort from Patrick Curran came back off the bottom of the right post.

Waterford continued to reduce the Tipperary margin after the restart with Mahony’s accuracy from frees helping their cause, while Austin Gleeson and Ryan added good efforts which helped cut the gap to 0-18 to 0-14 after 43 minutes.

The sides then twice swapped changed points before another Mahony free left just a goal between the sides at 0-20 to 0-17 after 51 minutes.

A tense and exciting finish seemed on the cards, but then ‘Bonner’ Maher, Callanan and O’Dwyer combined to set up Forde and he fired low to the net after 54 minutes.

Tipperary took control after that and killed off the Waterford challenge with a succession of points before they sealed an impressive win when Callanan got their second goal in dying moments.

Scorers for Tipperary: Jason Forde 1-9 (2fs, 165, 1 sideline), Michael Breen 0-6, John McGrath 0-5, John O’Dwyer 0-4, Seamie Callanan 1-0, Noel McGrath 0-2 (1f), Ronan Maher 0-2 (1f, 1 sideline), Barry Heffernan 0-1, Jake Morris 0-1.

Scorers for Waterford: Pauric Mahony 0-9 (7fs), Tommy Ryan 0-3, Austin Gleeson 0-2, Tadhg de Burca 0-1, Stephen Bennett 0-1.

TIPPERARY: Brian Hogan; Cathal Barrett, James Barry, Ronan Maher; Brendan Maher, Padraic Maher, Alan Flynn; Noel McGrath, Michael Breen; Jason Forde, Patrick Maher, D McCormack; John O’Dwyer, Seamus Callanan, John McGrath.

Subs: Barry Heffernan for B Maher (half-time), Robert Byrne for McCormack (48), Willie Connors for N McGrath (60), Jake Morris for O’Dwyer (66), Ger Browne for P Maher (69).

WATERFORD: Stephen O’Keeffe, Calum Lyons, Conor Prunty, Noel Connors, Phil Mahony, Tadgh De Burca, Kevin Moran, Jamie Barron, Conor Gleeson, Thomas Ryan, Austin Gleeson, Pauric Mahony, Jack Prendergast, Patrick Curran, Stephen Bennett.

Subs: Maurice Shanahan for Curran (half-time), Shane Bennett for S Bennett (50), Shane McNulty for Lyons (55-58 blood), Kieran Bennett for Philip Mahony (55), Brian O’Halloran for P Mahony (62), Colin Dunford for Prendergast (67).

REFEREE: John Keenan (Wicklow) .