Waterford fight their way to Munster crown

Waterford 3-16 Cork 1-21

Fourteen-man Waterford tasted Munster Hurling Championship glory at Thurles today with a one-point win over Cork.

Without John Mullane for most of the second half, the Déise showed true grit to overcome the defending champions in a game that lived up to the hype.

It didn’t start too well for Waterford. Cork’s Garvan Mccarthy opened the scoring with a bizarre goal in the third minute. The Waterford backs failed to clear and his overhead strike from 20 yards somehow dribbled to the back of the net.

Inspired, the Rebels stretched their lead to 1-3 inside six minutes as Joe Deane (two frees) and Brian Corcoran knocked over points.

Waterford slowly found their feet as Dave Bennett pointed from a free and Dan Shanahan knocked over three points from play.

Then, on 15 minutes Waterford were back in it. The Cork backs went to sleep and Eoin Kelly powered his way in and goaled from a tight angle.

Cork replied immediately. Joe Deane pointed four in a row (three frees) and Brian Corcoran added one of his own, but again a shaky Cork defence was exposed and Dan Shanahan was on hand to strike for the Déise’s second goal.

It was tit for tat after that as both sides added points, but Cork were happier at the break with a 1-14 to 2-8 lead.

Waterford’s John Mullane closed the gap with an inspirational point within a minute of the restart. But three minutes later he was off after he struck Brian Murphy off the ball.

Cork looked set to retain their Munster Championship crown, but didn’t count on one Paul Flynn rising to the occasion. He immediately narrowed Cork’s lead to a point.

The teams exchanged points and Cork held a two-point lead on 51 minutes when Flynn spotted the Cork defence napping and tucked a free into the top corner.

Waterford were ahead, but not for long. Joe Deane and Ben O’Connor stepped up and put the Rebels back in front.

But it was to be the Déise’s day. They leveled, then went a point ahead, and then two. Meanwhile, Cork huffed and puffed. Tom Kenny pointed with just one minute to go but Cork couldn’t find an equaliser in the end.