Cork will not yield title

Cork and Tipperary create a little history at Semple Stadium in tomorrow's Guinness Munster hurling final. It is the first in nine years these teams will meet at this stage, but more significantly it will be the counties' first final since the 1996 championship reforms. Traditionalist concern that this will diminish the great occasion hasn't been borne out by the three years of precedent.

Neither side would gain by taking the scenic route as opposed to going flat out for the title and an automatic semi-final place. Tomorrow's game seems finely balanced. Tipperary have come through the hard way with tense matches against Waterford and Clare. Cork, conversely, cruised through the first round against Kerry and Limerick who were spirited but limited. This final is the first match the champions will approach with genuine fear.

Tipperary will have their own problems. After a year of anticipating a return match with Clare - a wait made all the more fraught by having to surmount Waterford first - it will be very difficult for Nicky English's players to refocus on Cork with the same level of intensity.

Having been slightly undervalued by the defeat of Waterford, Tipperary were slightly overvalued by the defeat of Clare. Clare's defence wasn't the grinding machine of old. Centrefield was a write-off with Ollie Baker's lack of form, and a puzzling selection policy in attack was exacerbated by a subdued collective performance.

It was to Tipperary's credit that they exploited all this and extracted good displays around the field, but tomorrow will be different. Cork's defence and in particular the half-back line has taken over Clare's mantle as the best unit in the game.

It will be a surprise if John Leahy and Tommy Dunne have the sort of space to dictate the game as they did three weeks ago - even allowing for Cork's experimental centrefield which introduces Derek Barrett but may feature Sean O hAilpin.

Move into the attack and there are three players - four given Declan Ryan is unlikely to play - whose current credentials are still not proven, who will be looking towards the sideline anxiously if the match starts slowly. Eugene O'Neill and Brian O'Meara may have rediscovered their best form, and Paddy O'Brien may be the genuine article but this is the acid test. Similarly Eddie Enright, if he comes in on the 40 to replace Ryan, is a player yet to stake a permanent claim to a starting place.

It is in defence, however, that Tipperary will feel the difference most severely. Can their half-back line repeat the dominant display against Clare? Will the growing composure of the full-back line be further illustrated or undermined by close-up exposure to Joe Deane and Sean McGrath?

The introduction of Alan Browne brings a heftier look to Cork's half-forward line but Timmy McCarthy's subdued form is a nagging worry because by the All-Ireland final of last year he had extended his repertoire from expressway runs to making an impact in the troubled centrefield sector.

Other question marks hover over the current form of Ben O'Connor and McGrath but Cork have a hard-won reputation for performing on big days and keeping their nerve until the whistle. Factor in the team's liking for Thurles and there is enough steel in their defence and enough menace up front to compensate for any shortcomings at centrefield.