Limerick 0-19 Waterford 0-17
Limerick weathered the strong second-half breeze and the resistance of a dogged Waterford side to progress to a fourth successive Munster minor hurling final at Walsh Park Wednesday night.
Spearheaded by corner-forward Paul O’Brien, who ran up 10 points, Limerick led from the seventh minute, a lead they were not to relinquish.
Limerick led by 0-9 to 0-4 at the break, with midfielder Brian Ryan landing three fine points from play. Darragh Carroll cut a superb sideline between the uprights first half stoppage time, while Waterford battled to stay in touch thanks to Jack Prendergast and Neil Montgomery.
After the break, whenever Waterford rallied, Limerick found an extra gear, rattling off four points without reply inside a five minute spell. But Waterford got within a point of the visitors inside the last 10 minutes, with Eoghan Murray figuring prominently. But an injury-time free from O’Brien sealed victory for Limerick, who will have home advantage when taking on Tipperary or Cork on July 10th. In last night’s Connacht Minor Football Championship semi-finals Galway beat Roscommon 3-11 to 1-7 while Mayo had an easy passage to the final cruising past Leitrim by 4-11 to 1-8.
