HURLING/Championship 2002: It was the late Taoiseach Jack Lynch who coined a memorable phrase to sum up Cork-Kilkenny clashes throughout his career. "Kilkenny won," he recalled of one final, "by the usual point."

There were shades of 1939 and 1947 about Semple Stadium yesterday as Cork retrieved a match that should have been beyond them - they trailed by 10 at one point - before Kilkenny did the same at just the right moment.

Kilkenny's Peter Barry succinctly summarised the afternoon. "We couldn't seem to get going after the goal. We just held in there, which is what it's all about and when they got a point, we got one and vice versa. Luckily enough, we were in front at the final whistle when it counted. Had it gone on another couple of minutes, they could have got one or two."

This was a great afternoon's entertainment. With the championship around the corner, the hurling season blossomed in a frenzied 70 minutes or so action. The "or so" was important, as the Dowling brothers, Sean and Brian, clipped the points in injury-time that turned Cork's one-point lead into a similarly sized defeat.

Killkenny know all about the wrong end of such tight margins. Three years ago the counties met in the All-Ireland final and it was Cork who won by the minimum distance.

There didn't look likely to be much need for contemplating great one-point matches between the counties after 17 minutes when Kilkenny led by 2-6 to 0-2. At one point an anguished young Cork supporter could be heard howling: "Wake up Cork. The game has started."

They did and with five minutes left hit the front for the first time. Twice more they regained the lead before the late one-two floored them.

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody was in good form, his new-look team having developed into a national title-winning outfit and with a banquet of All Stars ready to come back into the reckoning before he picks his panel for the championship opener against Offaly.

"We started excellently, probably had a chance to build on that but didn't. But you're not going to maintain that pace. You don't come down to Thurles and wipe Cork off the pitch. We never expected to and even when we were ahead we always knew they'd come back at us."

He was characteristically modest about the impact made by the substitutes he brought on in the last 10 minutes.

"Sometimes you bring in subs and they do okay and sometimes you bring them in and they don't do okay. You trust in God anyway and it's nothing to do with inspiration behind putting them in at all.

"Sean Dowling went in and scored a very good point and Brian scored a couple - smashing points for a young lad - and they'll stand out, but it's about spirit.

"Naturally they'll get a bit of attention, but our backs were brilliant I thought."