De La Salle selector Barry Murphy knows Sunday will test the Waterford county champions to the limit.

“Championés, championés” – that was the cry from the Newmarket-on-Fergus dressing-room following Sunday’s Clare SHC final as the players celebrated the storied club’s first county title in 31 years.

Newmarket-on-Fergus 3-10 Cratloe 0-09

Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald has made a series of changes to his side ahead of tonight's All-Ireland SHC second phase qualifier against Dublin.

Kilkenny are facing an injury crisis ahead of Sunday’s Leinster senior hurling final with Galway at Croke Park.

Offaly 0-19 Clare 2-14

Clare 0-20 Antrim 0-12

Tipperary’s Noel McGrath was the star of the show as UCD advanced to the quarter-finals of the Fitzgibbon Cup at the expense of WIT at Carriganore last night.

They were a subdued force in the first-half and trailed by five at the interval yet Cork IT produced a dynamic second-half display to claim a critical victory over Waterford IT in Group A of the Fitzgibbon Cup at their grounds in Bishopstown last night.

A winning debut for Davy Fitzgerald in his first competitive game at the helm of his native county as a far fitter, faster and fired-up Clare destroyed WIT in Sixmilebridge yesterday in this Waterford Crystal SH Tournament preliminary game.

LIMERICK IT nailed down a Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-final berth at Moylish yesterday and left this year’s hosts on the brink of missing the finals weekend.

University of Limerick 0-14 Waterford IT 1-15

A useful exercise for new Clare manager Ger O’Loughlin in this first round Waterford Crystal senior hurling tournament in magnificent Meelick yesterday afternoon, as his charges chiselled out a gritty three-point win over WIT (Waterford Institute of Technology).

ALL-IRELAND winner Niall Gilligan has turned down an initial approach to link up with the Clare senior hurling panel for the 2010 campaign.

CLARE’S All-Ireland U-21 winning manager John Minogue claims some of the gloss has been taken off a landmark season because of the bitter dispute that led to Mike McNamara’s resignation as senior boss.

THE FIRST thing to say was how fantastic to see Plan B going up in lights at Croke Park again yesterday.

THERE have been three outstanding hurling games this year.

AMIDST all the hoopla in Clare hurling circles about tomorrow’s All-Ireland U21 final, the focus on the bigger picture cannot be lost.

CLARE U21 attacking star Darach Honan is set to shake off a hamstring injury and start in next Sunday’s Bord Gáis Energy All-Ireland U21 decider against Kilkenny in Croke Park.

Clare manager John Minogue has made two changes to the side which claimed the Banner's first Munster Under-21 title for tomorrow's Bord Gais Energy All-Ireland U-21 Hurling Championship semi-final against Galway at Semple Stadium (throw-in 2.30pm).

LAOIS duo Colm Parkinson and Darren Rooney played a telling role in Parnells 0-12 to 0-11 win over St Mark’s Tallaght in round three of the Dublin SFC in O’Toole Park last night.

IN all the years I’ve been doing this column, the one major disappointment for me is that I’ve never been in a position to analyse a big win for Clare.

TONIGHT it’s a Munster U21 hurling decider with a twist. The heavyweights of Cork and Tipperary are both marked absent ensuring the first final without either of the Old Firm in fifteen years. It promises to be a unique evening in Dungarvan.

IT’S twelve months since the puckout that prompted a raging storm from the Clare hurling fraternity, but Ciaran O’Doherty is in no mood to dwell on the past.

AFTER the dejection of Saturday night’s All-Ireland qualifier loss, Clare hurling looks to get back on track at Cusack Park, Ennis tonight (7.30pm) with the Bord Gáis Energy Munster U21 HC semi-final against Limerick.

TEN of the Cork team that started in last August’s semi-final defeat to Kilkenny, were named in the starting 15 last night for Cork’s NHL Division One trip to Clare on Sunday.

TWELVE months after last meeting at this juncture, UCC and Waterford IT cross paths in this afternoon’s Fitzgibbon Cup semi-final at the Clanna Gael Fontenoy GAA Club, Ringsend, in Dublin.

THE Limerick team to play Clare in the ESB Munster MHC semi-final qualifier in Cusack Park tonight (6.30pm), shows six changes from the team trounced by Cork in the first round.

HOLDERS Cork will field seven of the squad which trounced Limerick in last year’s provincial final in tomorrow night’s opening round of the ESB Munster Minor Hurling Championship at the Gaelic Grounds (6.30).

St Flannan's 1-11 Kilkenny CBS 0-13