Paul O’Brien delights for Limerick minors

Waterford 0-17 Limerick 0-19: The Limerick backroom team jumped for joy at full-time as the Treaty resisted a late avalanche of Waterford pressure to squeeze through to the Munster minor hurling final for the fourth year in a row at a sunny Walsh Park.

In a thrilling climax before a crowd of 2,599, the hosts closed within a point on two occasions but Limerick held their composure. Top scorer Paul O’Brien sealed their place in the provincial showpiece on July 10 at the Gaelic Grounds with a free two minutes into injury time. The Mungret/St Paul’s forward churned out ten points for the winners.

Their lead stood at six with 12 minutes remaining but a spirited Déise rose to the challenge. In their best spell of hurling, they scored five on the spin, topped off by a cracking free from Eoghan Murray. Kyle Hayes and Cian Magnier Flynn appeared to move Limerick out of trouble but they needed to hold off another home surge to progress.