Waterford 0-14 Cork 0-13: How Cork hurling folk love their heroes, and so it was that Brian Corcoran's return to the fold was greeted late on in the second half of this do-or-die league game at Páirc Uí Rinn as if the Messiah himself had reappeared to the masses. The standing ovation that hailed his 52nd-minute introduction bordered on hysteria.
Alas, water is not turned into wine on a cold April afternoon. And if there were hints of summer promise in this game, it came mainly from Waterford, who gained some revenge for last year's provincial championship loss - and put down a marker for the months ahead - with a merited win over their fiercest rivals.
The victory very much keeps Waterford's title ambitions alive, while inflicting mortal wounds on Cork's.
For Waterford, any win over Cork is to be cherished; and the synchronised raising of arms that met referee Aidán Mac Suibhne's final whistle testified to the importance of all the hard work such a victory entailed. Indeed, this was no day for shirkers. A cold wind, accompanied at times by rain and at times by hail, blew down the pitch towards the scoreboard end, assisting Waterford in the first half, from which they established a two-point lead that didn't seem at all adequate.
That first half was curious, with Cork playing frugally into the wind. In all of the half, they amassed only two wides and there must have been those in the Cork fraternity wondering why all the worry about the county's alleged lack of genuine scoring forwards. For those rash enough to entertain such thoughts, the evidence was provided in the second half, when, playing with the wind, Cork had 10 wides.
Still, Cork had flattered mightily in the opening stages, when every shot found its target.
After a mere six minutes, the home side had raced into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead and, midway through, they were still three points ahead. However, a sequence of five unanswered points from Waterford - three from talisman Paul Flynn and one each from the wizardry of All Star John Mullane and Dave Bennett - pushed the visitors into a lead they would never relinquish.
As you'd expect in a game between these sides, there was much good hurling and many times when players felt obliged to assert their physical presence. In the first half, Waterford's Dan Shanahan and his marker Ronan Curran were particularly robust (both were booked over one incident), while there was also the rare sight of Diarmuid O'Sullivan being grounded by an immovable Andy Moloney, who was also booked.
In the second half, Cork substitute Mickey O'Connell was booked for a tackle on Flynn that might have prompted a card of a different hue.
Flynn and Mullane in either corner were the main providers of Waterford's scores, although their rewards came from successful work farther outfield, Bennett doing particularly well around the middle, the entire half-back line - with Ken McGrath prominent - doing admirably and those behind them also refusing to flinch under Cork's pressure.
Stephen Brenner, too, was required to make two especially good saves, the best midway through the second half from John Gardiner when only a point separated the sides.
While Waterford led by 0-10 to 0-8 at the break, the expected Cork charge never materialised.
And when Corcoran was eventually sprung from the bench (with Waterford leading by a point), it led to a frenzied 10-minute spell of helter-skelter hurling that didn't feature a single score.
Certainly, the Cork ball into the full-forward line, and Corcoran, left a lot to be desired. And the one occasion when a sensible ball was played into the big man led to a free. But, for some strange reason, Jonathan O'Callaghan - again Cork's leading scorer - took the point rather than attempting to rifle the ball through the Waterford defence.
WATERFORD: S Brenner; J Murray, D Prendergast, T Feeney; T Browne, K McGrath, B Phelan; M Walsh, D Bennett (0-3, two frees); D Shanahan (0-1), E Kelly (0-1), A Moloney; J Mullane (0-3), S Prendergast, P Flynn (0-5, three frees). Subs: J Kennedy for Shanahan (half-time), P O'Brien (0-1) for Moloney (60 mins).
CORK: D Óg Cusack; B Murphy, D O'Sullivan, C O'Connor; T Kenny, R Curran, S Óg Ó hAilpín; J Gardiner (0-4, one free), A Coughlan; J O'Callaghan (0-5, four frees), N McCarthy (0-1), T McCarthy (0-1); B Lombard (0-1), J Deane, K Murphy. Subs: M O'Connell (0-1) for Coughlan (38 mins), J O'Connor for T McCarthy (45 mins), B Corcoran for Lombard (52 mins), P Tierney for K Murphy (59 mins), G Callinan for N McCarthy (65 mins).
Referee: A Mac Suibhne (Dublin).
