Kilkenny 1-21 Tipperary 2-16:Holders Kilkenny remain on course to successfully defend their All-Ireland SHC after a narrow 1-21 to 2-16 win over Tipperary in today's semis-final at Croke Park.
It looks as though the encounter would turn into a procession after the Cats raced into a 0-07 to 0-01 lead after just 10 minutes with Geoff Brennan scoring four of them against Sean Curran’s solitary point.
Brennan, Sean Kehoe and Richie Doyle increased the advantage to 0-10 to 0-2 after 15 minutes before Tipperary found their range.
David Collins fired home a goal on 19 minutes, while John O'Dwyer added two more points to reduce the gap to 0-11 to 1-4.
Further Kilkenny scores came from Cillian Buckley and Walter Walsh as they went into the break 0-15 to 1-6 ahead.
Tipperary were explosive after the restart and picked three-points each from free-taker O'Dwyer and Curran.
But then Kilkenny responded with a 46th minute goal from Walsh and never looked back.
Kilkenny: J Power; I Duggan, W Phelan, J Lyng; L Harney, R Doyle (0-2, 2 65), J Gannon; C Kenny (0-1), O Walsh (0-1); G Brennan (0-5), S Kehoe (0-5, 4fs), C Buckley (0-1); G Aylward (0-1), W Walsh (1-2), C Maher (0-1).
Subs used: S Phelan for Gannon (42 mins), M Gaffney (0-2, 1f) for Aylward (44), J Cassin for Kehoe (59).
Tipperary: D McCormack; S Maher, L Butler, A Ryan; D Maher, W Ryan, J Meagher; A Hogan, B Stapleton (0-1); S Curran (0-3), T Butler (0-1), E Murray (0-2), D Collins (1-1), J O'Dwyer (1-8, 7fs), A Cleere.
Subs used: D Butler for Cleere (42 mins), P Heffernan for L Butler (51), M O'Brien for Collins (53), J Forde for Hogan (53).
Referee: Declan O'Driscoll (Limerick)