Can Déise sustain this intensity?

YOU CAN stop chewing those nails now, before you hit solid knuckle.

Waterford finally put Cork to the sword yesterday in the All-Ireland quarter-final replay at Croke Park, before 55,000 witnesses, after a hurling diet so rich, it’s a wonder we don’t all have gout.

Talk about starting as you mean to go on: in the first minute, Seamus Prendergast looked for a point, only to see Donal Óg Cusack save. As omens go, given its echo of last year’s semi-final, it was a bad one for Waterford, and they were under pressure early on.