Prior to last year’s All-Ireland U21 hurling decider, Waterford selector Paul Flynn opened up on why the grade is his favourite competition

Shane O’Donnell was selected on the B team at a Clare training session two weeks ago.

It was 2013 when people began to realise how much of a young man’s game hurling had become. 

Clare 3-18 Dublin 0-19

Tipperary 0-28 Clare 0-21: “I’m not joking, we’re doing nothing different,” insisted Michael Ryan after this latest piece of evidence that the crown weighs lighter on Tipperary’s heads than previous times.

Clare 2-19 - Kilkenny 0-12: You know things aren’t going Kilkenny’s way when Richie Hogan makes way. The sight of the 2014 hurler of the year being called ashore in the 49th minute was a grimacing one for the player as much as the travelling support.

Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash has expressed delight at Saturday night’s opening League victory over Clare but insists there is no room for complacency in the top tier.

At half-time, the Cork players and the match officials were left waiting for Clare for a number of minutes in the bitterly cold conditions. 

Cork 0-19 Clare 0-15: Cork’s fourth win of the Co-Op Superstores.ie Munster SHL denied Clare a place in this Sunday’s decider.

GAA Interprovincial hurling final

Galway’s first-half dominance was the making of this quarter-final win as they sealed a second successive All-Ireland semi-final date with Tipperary.

Before the 1995 National League final against Kilkenny, my back was in bits. I wanted to play. I convinced management I was fit to play. I thought we would win. I wanted to lift the cup. 

John Mullane and I have had this ‘friendly’ €20 bet over the last few months on the outcome of the Clare-Waterford championship match in June, but we decided live on RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday to bring it forward by five weeks. Now it has turned into a rolling bet, the money still sweating in the pot until next Sunday. We hope.

Clare 2-13 Tipperary 0-18: Are Clare 2016’s version of Waterford 2015 or a model closer to their 2013 selves? They’ll be praying it’s the latter but now 10 from 10 this year they have generated the sort of league momentum that carried their June 5 Munster semi-final opponents last season.

I came in early yesterday morning to watch the Clare U21s play Dublin in a challenge game in Clare-abbey, our old pitch in Clarecastle. 

Tipperary were made to regret an awful display of free-taking as a 67th minute goal by substitute Aaron Shanagher sealed a Division 1 semi-final date with Kilkenny.

Jackie Tyrrell makes his first since last year’s Leinster final as one of five changes to the Kilkenny side for tomorrow’s Allianz HL Division 1A clash with Galway at Nowlan Park tomorrow (2pm).

Clare 2-21 Offaly 0-15: Davy Fitzgerald’s Bannermen, similar to the under-construction main stand which provided an appropriate backdrop to this Division 1B contest, are very much a work in progress.

There’s no sitting on the fence from Eamonn Sheehy; today’s Munster intermediate hurling final is “the biggest day” in Newcestown’s 56-year history.

Tipperary 1-15 Clare 1-11

A last-minute point from Cian Magner-Flynn earned West Limerick Colleges a draw against Thurles CBS in their Group 1 clash at Claughaun GAA Club yesterday.

Waterford 2-13 Clare 2-12

Clare 1-23 Tipperary 0-12

Waterford 1-13 Clare 0-11