Clare 2-20 Waterford 1-15: Good things eventually happened to Clare in yesterday's Munster hurling quarter-final but their supporters – and maybe the team themselves – had an anxious wait.
In the end goals from Shane O’Donnell and Conor McGrath completed an impressive second-half turnaround that saw the winners outscore their opponents 2-12 to 0-6 to run out comfortable winners.
David Fitzgerald’s young side, gilded with under-21 All-Ireland gold, went into yesterday with the county still looking for a first provincial championship victory since 2008 and only their third in the last 10 years.
The pressure of expectation looked to be having worrying consequences for much of yesterday’s match, as Waterford – the antithesis of Clare in that they have manfully resisted anticipations of decline for a couple of years – drove hard to exploit their fancied opponents’ apparent crisis of self-belief.
That didn't look like being Clare's downfall in the opening minutes when they swept into a four-point lead – a 65 from Colin Ryan, two flowing points from John Conlon and a fine strike – the first of four – from Tony Kelly.
With severe damage threatening Waterford came off the ropes with a couple of sucker punches that set at naught Clare's exuberant opening. In the eighth minute, centre back Patrick Donnellan tried to thread a deft pass out of defence but it was read, intercepted and dispatched to the net in seconds by Jake Dillon.
The debutant from De La Salle grabbed another gifted score a minute later when a ball was allowed to run across the field by Clare backs.
Although the match was now just level and Darach Honan – a starter as widely rumoured – put them ahead immediately afterwards the swift wipe-out of the early lead appeared both to demoralise Clare and empower Waterford.
Aerial ball
Shane O'Sullivan's work rate at centrefield plus the robust experience of Séamus Prendergast began to exert huge pressure on Clare, particularly at the restarts. Afterwards Clare admitted that at half-time they had had to re-focus on winning aerial ball, which they ended up dominating.
Those problems were all too visible in attack where Waterford mopped up plenty of ball and where Jamie Nagle made an outstanding contribution.
Clare’s cause in the middle wasn’t helped when Séadna Morey, the subject of injury rumours last week, had to leave the field and as the second quarter wore on the pressure intensified on Clare and Waterford in their diligent way started to take control on the scoreboard.
A fine ball from O’Sullivan to Maurice Shanahan, now causing a lot of trouble as he flitted between wing and full forward, was crisply dispatched for the lead point 0-6 to 1-4. A couple of frees from the same player stretched the lead to three and with Conlon dropping a shot short and Honan hitting a wide the contest appeared to be slipping from Clare.
Nervousness abounded. Patrick Kelly hit a puck-out that was robbed by Kevin Moran and pointed and it needed points from Conlon and Kelly to keep the margin at four, 0-8 to 1-9 going in at the break.
There was further slippage on the restart after a plundering run by Conlon was squandered when he managed to flip a hand-pass inside to Honan that somehow went over the head of the six and a half foot forward and ran wide.
Waterford’s wides kept the match within Clare’s range but by the 47th minute there was still a goal in the difference, 0-10 to 1-10 and the tone of the contest hadn’t discernibly shifted.
Signs of change were however detectible in the sequence of frees that levelled the match at the end of the third quarter. Referee James McGrath was quick to penalise a couple of off-the-ball fouls that indicated Waterford were feeling the strain.
Honan’s equaliser after Shanahan had given Waterford the lead for the last time set the scene for a blistering dash for the tape by Clare.
Close-in free
In the 55th minute, it looked as if Kelly had erred in trying for goal from a close-in free when his shot was blocked and spun loose to Moran. Disaster struck for Waterford when their captain was dispossessed on the way out of his square and O'Donnell drove the loose ball into the net for a 1-14 to 1-11 lead.
The dam had burst, in the process flooding away Clare’s inhibitions and sweeping away Waterford’s challenge. The lead grew progressively and in the 61st minute Conor McGrath was the quickest to react to a break around square and having stepped inside gave himself a simple goal chance, which effectively ended the contest at 2-15 to 1-12.
With their grip on the match now irresistible and their half backs cleaning up the scores kept coming and Clare's grace notes included two imperial strikes from around centrefield by Colm Galvin to help to seal an eight-point victory.
CLARE: P Kelly; D O'Donovan, D McInerney, C Dillon; B Bugler, P Donnellan, P O'Connor; S Morey, C Galvin (0-2); J Conlon (0-3), T Kelly (0-4), C Ryan (0-7, six frees, one 65); S O'Donnell (1-0), D Honan (0-3), C McGrath (1-0). Subs: P Duggan for Morey (29 mins), P Collins for O'Donnell (55 mins), F Lynch (0-1) for Duggan (68 mins). Yellow cards: Dillon (7 mins), O'Connor (37 mins), Bugler (40 mins).
WATERFORD: I O'Regan; N Connors, L Lawlor, P Prendergast; J Nagle, M Walsh, K Moran (0-1); S O'Sullivan, D Fives; B O'Halloran, S Prendergast (0-2), P Mahony (0-1); J Dillon (1-2), M Shanahan (0-7, six frees), J Barron (0-1). Subs: R Barry for O'Halloran (17 mins), G O'Brien (0-1) for Barron (56 mins), M O'Neill for Mahony (63 mins). Yellow cards: P Prendergast (45 mins).
Referee: James McGrath (Westmeath).
