Cork 3-16 Waterford 3-16:Ah! A game which pushed up the heart rate and nourished the soul. A contest of epochal significance and racy controversy. A proving ground, a battle, a war. Best of all, just the first instalment of this All-Ireland quarter-final contest.

Cork and Waterford lurched to a draw in Croke Park yesterday after 70 minutes of hurling where momentum shifted tidally between the two sides. The sides had been level seven times before controversy was the midwife of the straightfroward free Eoin Kelly drove over in the dying seconds to tie the game yet again.

Waterford needed a point and when substitute Eoin McGrath wriggled between two defenders and found himself with open pasture between himself and the Cork goal one imagined he would snaffle the point the god of percentages demanded. Instead, facing the best goalkeeper in the land, he drove the ball low and hard for glory. Donal Óg Cusack saved (his second great save in minutes); the ball dropped; Paul Flynn whipped in the rebound: Donal Óg fell on it or guarded it, depending on your viewpoint; the Waterford attack descended.

All sorts of permutations of the rules were possible at that instant and were debated afterwards. Referee Brian Gavin, the only one whose interpretation mattered, gave a free to Waterford.

Cork, the masters at closing out games, thus saw a four-point lead disintegrate in as many minutes. The draw and the prospect of a replay are good for the game, a bonus thrown up by a weekend of often-pedestrian hurling.

In the context of the match and the season Waterford can feel entitled to the reprieve. Cork will argue all referees' decisions should be taken on their merits and devoid of considerations of a larger context. Some such points were raised no doubt when Gavin was surrounded by Cork players at the final whistle. The argument though is unwinnable.

Games preceded by such a mighty drum-roll of hype seldom satisfy, but this was a thundering epic. The skills and commitment were remarkable but it was the character of the sides that lifted the match to the realms of the breathtaking. For both sides the chips were stacked skyscraper high and the refusal of either to bend created the circumstances for the cataclysmic finale.

Waterford opened each half with the sort of manic enthusiasm associated with sides beset by great hunger. A point by Stephen Molumphy set them on their way in the first but despite Dan Shanahan's sixth goal of the championship they could not shake Cork and found themselves frustratingly level at the break.

So they began the second half with a goal. Flynn, shackled and shadowed by Shane O'Neill all through the first half, switched to the right side of attack, and though O'Neill followed with the remorselessness of a bounty hunter Flynn smelled freedom for the first time. Almost from the throw-in Molumphy found him with a handpass. He drove it low past Cusack. Game on, we said.

Shanahan added a point minutes later in one of those sequences which made the seating in Croke Park redundant for much of the game. Ken McGrath pulled down a high ball outside his own small square and broke left. He drove the ball in a line parallel to the sideline. Shanahan caught and drove it over the bar from an unpromising angle. Having scored 1-1 before the break, including his goal, a typical catch-and-turn off a Tony Browne ball, followed by the point of the day from the left sideline with Ronan Curran descending like an avenging angel, Shanahan continued his extraordinary season with no sign of flagging.

So potent is the Waterford attack that all six of their starting forwards registered scores from play while working in the shadow of the best half-back line in the game and knowing Ó hAilpín was giving one of those swashbuckling displays upon which his reputation is built.

For most of the game Waterford played Eoin Kelly on Seán Óg, a ploy which has paid dividends before. Yesterday he was limited to a point from play, gratefully nicked when the ball defied the defender's touch and bounced high in the second half. Seán Óg scored two points himself and drove endless balls at the Waterford defence, a one-man interrogation of their credentials.

John Gardiner on the other wing scored a key point as well and their contribution compensated for hard times in the Cork half-forward line, who mustered two points from play in the 70 minutes. Timmy McCarthy got no change out of Ken McGrath.

Pa Cronin, while enjoying a height advantage over Tony Browne he exploited from puck-outs, struggled to impose himself otherwise. Cork though, as is their wont, made up for the deficiencies in other ways.

For a short while after Flynn's goal, however, it looked as if we were witnessing the end of a great side and the final moments of an era dominated by Cork and Kilkenny. Then the game zigged the other way. Kieran Murphy, set free by Neil Ronan, was pulled down by a coalition of Aidan Kearney and Ken McGrath and a penalty was awarded. Ronan drove it to the net.

Waterford's lead was back to a point and never stretched beyond the width of a goal after that.

The flow of argument in the second half was so fluent that it would have needed a court stenographer and not a journalist to keep track. Points were exchanged furiously, flagging players withdrawn and live replacements thrown in.

Kieran Murphy burst on to a loose ball in the Waterford defence after 60 minutes and drove it past Clinton Hennessy to give Cork a one-point lead. Waterford replied with a puck-out which fell into Séamus Prendergast's paw and got driven over the bar. So with 10 minutes left the sides were level again. Game on, we said again.

Gardiner and Shanahan exchanged points and then Cork pulled clear within a minute.

A fumble in the Waterford defence. Tom Kenny drove through. Hennessy saved. Ronan pulled to the net from the rebound. Sub Kevin Hartnett added a point immediately afterwards and when seconds later Seán Óg rose high to pull down the puck-out the cheer that went up recognised that if normal rules applied the game was now over with Cork four points ahead.

The rules don't apply to Waterford this year though. Flynn saw a break and drove the ball goalwards. Cusack made a fine save but Molumphy was on hand to bat to the net and leave Waterford just needing that one point, which came in the dying seconds.

CORK: 1 D Óg Cusack; 2 S O'Neill, 3 D O'Sullivan, 4 B Murphy; 5 J Gardiner (0-1), 6 R Curran, 7 S Óg Ó hAilpín (0-2); 8 T Kenny (0-1), 9 J O'Connor (0-1); 10 B O'Connor (0-3, one free), 11 T McCarthy, 12 P Cronin; 13 N Ronan (2-2, one goal a penalty), 14 K Murphy (Sarsfields) (1-0), 15 J Deane (capt, 0-5, four frees). Subs: N McCarthy for T McCarthy (44 mins), K Hartnett (0-1) for J O'Connor (57 mins), C Naughton for N McCarthy (71 mins).

WATERFORD: 1 C Hennessy; 2 E Murphy, 3 D Prendergast, 7 A Kearney; 5 T Browne, 6 K McGrath (0-2, one free, one 65), 4 J Murray; 10 J Kennedy, 8 M Walsh ( capt); 9 E Kelly (0-4, three frees), 14 D Shanahan (1-3), 15 S Molumphy (1-2); 13 J Mullane (0-2), 11 S Prendergast (0-1), 12 P Flynn (1-2). Subs: E McGrath for J Kennedy (28 mins), B Phelan for J Murray (half-time), S Walsh for E Kelly (68 mins).

Referee: B Gavin (Offaly).

YELLOWS CARDS: Cork: D O'Sullivan; Waterford: J Kennedy, D Prendergast, A Kearney, K McGrath.