Quietly, they Tipp-toe into Cork

IT WAS League weather, and until late in the afternoon a League crowd, so nobody should be surprised that for long stretches yesterday, Tipperary’s Munster SHC semi-final victory over Clare looked a contest more suited to March.

Limerick's Gaelic Grounds wasn't full, Clare came out to a muted reception and even the now-obligatory canine pitch invasion looked half-hearted. The game bubbled, but it never quite boiled.

Those who predicted that Tipperary's tutorials with Limerick would prove significant can feel smug this morning. Yesterday, they carried on where they left off, settling quickly against old enemies Clare. Tipperary's touch was sharper, and significantly enough, that was often shown in defensive flicking and blocking up front by their forwards. Clare, without a championship warm-up, had enough on their plate controlling a greasy sliotar without having determined and legitimate interference from Tipperary to contend with.

Incidentally, worries about the Tipperary rearguard without the totemic figure of Philly Maher proved largely unfounded. John Devane was efficient, and if Hell's Kitchen wasn't reborn, it wasn't exactly Hell's Breakfast Nook around the Tipperary square either. Barry Nugent had a clear sight of goal ten minutes in but he didn't convert, and shortly afterwards Gilligan placed Diarmuid McMahon for a one-on-one with Brendan Cummins, but he pointed when a goal was on. Clare would rue those misses, particularly when play swung down to Davy Fitzgerald's goal.

If any defence in the last ten years deserves the reputation of an infernal bistro, it's the Clare full line, but a two-minute stretch midway through the first half rocked that reputation. The sight of Eoin Kelly in possession is enough on its own to induce spontaneous keening in opposition supporters, but his supporting cast caused the damage on this occasion.

Lar Corbett and Mícheál Webster combined for two goals which will hasten the production of elegies for a Golden Era of Clare Hurling (tm). Brian Lohan's parish was the zone under siege, and the affront to the red-helmeted one's dignity must have led to the energetic off-the-ball debate between him and the impressive Webster towards the end of the first half.

Deservedly awarded man of the match, Webster was at the heart of everything that Tipperary tried up front, though he had good support further out the field as well: Paul Kelly's left-handed delivery gave the Premier some much-needed balance in the middle of the field, and Diarmuid Fitzgerald leavened efficiency with style at wing-back.

Still, it was Webster's day. His height makes him an obvious target man, though he doesn't carry the transom of a John Carroll or a Redser O'Grady, and he combined that with a ravenous appetite for work. Brian Lohan had few opportunities to burst out and spark a Clare shout, with the tall man from Loughmore-Castleiney hooking, chasing and blocking. That industry wasn't an accident, as he revealed after the game.

"I don't care if I never score," said Webster. "Having fellas like Eoin Kelly and Lar Corbett around you, they'll keep banging in the goals and the points. I'm only there to do a job and once Tipperary win, I'm happy. I'm happy with the job I did today. It's my first year with the hurlers, and I'm delighted with how it's going so far."

So he should be. Dividing his time between the footballers and hurlers has proven difficult for Webster in the past, but on yesterday's evidence, Ken Hogan will be unwilling to share him even if Brian Kerr himself comes looking for a man willing to go in where it hurts. Hogan has other aces Tommy Dunne worked hard, Lar Corbett's hard running meant Frank Lohan had his hands full early on, and Evan Sweeney will push hard for a Munster final start.

And then there was Eoin Kelly. The Mullinahone man now belongs to that select group of players who provoke a specific reaction when the ball comes near him, a murmur of anticipation only associated with greatness. He drifted out of his corner from time to time and spent much of the second half on Sean McMahon's shoulder. Though his predatory instinct might be served better in the red zone, that posting would have robbed us of the score of the game midway through the second half; a ball broke into the centre and Kelly lifted and struck it over the bar without handling in a sweet swivelling motion. Any hurler worth his salt would sell his soul to replicate the footwork involved, not to mind the striking.

At the other end, Clare were well off the pace, their forwards missing good goal opportunities. Wide after wide 11 in the first half alone left Banner supporters shaking their heads, and no matter how much an animated Anthony Daly tried to keep his men's spirits up, Clare never seemed to have a run of play an inspirational catch, a surge out of defence that would rouse them to a higher pitch. When Barry Nugent eventually decided to test Brendan Cummins, he found the Ardfinnan man in customary form which is to say, near-unbeatable. Cummins touched a Nugent scorcher over the bar from close range in the first half, when a goal would have rallied the Banner cause considerably and he kept his clean sheet after the break.

With ten minutes left, the inimitable Tipperary chant was resounding around the ground. Clare have some thinking to do and a lot of ball work but, with Waterford, they'll be one of the beasts in the qualifiers.

Tipperary face Cork in the Munster final in three weeks and Leeside backroom staff who were present will notice some familiar traits, most notably a willingness to hand-pass into space and defending skilfully from the front.

Tipperary are on an upward curve and have now dogged out a win in one round before cruising home in style in another. The ancestral voices yesterday were already prophesying war: Tipp, Tipp, Tipp indeed.