Hickey comes up trumps for Tipp as Banner flag after fine first-half effort

Tipperary 1-16 Clare 0-8

But they were made to sweat for 45 minutes, at the end of which they were ahead by just two points, 0-10 to 0-8.

When the counties last met, Tipperary came out runaway winners. In the opening minutes of last evening’s encounter, most in the 1,000 crowd must have felt the game was to follow a similar pattern as the Premier county raced ahead by five points.

However, facing an embarrassing defeat, Clare, inspired by midfielders Jonathan Clancy and Kevin Sheehan as well as corner forward, Bernard Gaffney, upped the tempo and trailed by just 0-8 to 0-6 at the interval.

However, Tipperary had an ace in the pack in corner forward, Darragh Hickey who ended with 1-7 to his credit.

When Clare, who had a number of bad wides, threatened to overtake their opponents, Hickey came up trumps with a goal in the 45th minute, which really ended the Clare challenge.

It was a nice piece of work by Hickey who won the ball on the left and drove past a couple of defenders before capping the ball away from keeper Sean Murphy. Hickey had also been instrumental in giving Tipperary that early five points cushion with a hat-trick of scores.

While he was doing most damage, Darragh Egan and Shane Long were creating the opportunities for him up front.

It took Clare 16 minutes to get off the mark with a point from Jonathan Clancy and they took inspiration from that score with two magnificent points from full forward Shane O’Brien.

By now, Tipperary had lost some of their early sparkle and were depending greatly on corner back, Ian Delaney to stifle the hungry Clare forwards.

Hickey eased the pressure on them coming up to the break but Dave Barrett and Gaffney continued to keep the Banner in the hunt.

Unfortunately for Clare, they made the mistake of conceding soft frees each time they had found their own range and Hickey took full advantage.

The third quarter was a hectic affair with Clare giving it everything.

The impressive James McInerney at centre back was injured and then moved to centre forward where he teased and tormented Tipperary duo James Heffernan and James McCarthy.

With their big support behind them, Clare probably saw a light when they sneaked to within those two points of Tipperary but Hickey’s goal knocked the confidence from them and they failed to score in the next 13 minutes, with the now rampant Tipperary clocking up six further points to emerge comfortable winners and earn a date with Cork in the final.

Scorers for Tipperary: D. Hickey 1-7, S. Long 0-3, D. Egan 0-2, S. O’Brien, J. Dickson, S. Scully, J. Loughney 0-1 each.

Clare: D. Barrett, S. O’Brien, B. Gaffney 0-2 each, J. Clancy, D. O’Halloran 0-1 each.

TIPPERARY: M. Ryan, I. Delaney, J. Heffernan, R. McLoughney, S. O.Brien, J. McCarthy, R. McGrath, J. Dixon, K. Bergin, S. Scully, P. Ivors, J. Woodlock, S. Long, D. Egan, D. Hickey, subs. J. Loughney for Woodlock, C. Larkin for Bergin.

CLARE: S. Murphy, A. Quilligan, I. O'Halloran, A. Kilmartin, P. O'Hare, J. McInerney, P. Lynch, J. Clancy, K. Sheehan, D. Browne, D. O'Halloran, D. Barrett, B. Gaffney, S. O'Brien, D. O'Donoghue, subs. K. Kennedy for Browne, M. O’Donnell for Sheehan.

Referee: D. Kirwan (Cork).