All-Ireland SHC Qualifiers Round Three/Clare 4-14 Waterford 0-21: These are strange days in the hurling championship. Clare and Waterford packed Cusack Park yesterday and immediately tore into each other despite the blistering sun. They played with incredible intensity throughout and in the end produced as good a game of hurling you'll witness anywhere this summer.
That both teams still move on to exactly the same stage of the championship was obviously not the issue. The bonus prize of avoiding the provincial winners was merely an afterthought. It mightn't have really mattered if either team had won or lost, as long as they didn't lose.
Clare's motivation for victory went well beyond the prospect of facing Wexford or Tipperary rather than Cork or Kilkenny. It was a few hours later before manager Anthony Daly learned that his team will face Wexford on July 24th, but this was a game to fight for on its own merits.
"We just needed a lift," he said. "And needed a scalp. I think we built from our win over Offaly last weekend, and took great solace from that. We felt we'd turned the corner after that.
"But we know we've nothing won yet, so we won't be getting carried away. We were at home and if it was a league match we'd be expected to win it."
Any day you score four goals is a good one. Waterford possibly should have stopped at least two of them, but those goals definitely made the difference.
Waterford kept chasing but once the finish line came into view they ran out of track - and Clare were the deserving victors.
It didn't help that Waterford went into that final chase with only 14 men after Eoin McGrath was sent off for an apparent strike on Gerry O'Grady. But their wide count also mounted as their frustration rose, and manager Justin McCarthy will be looking to restore their composure before their quarter-final against Cork.
It was a game that required some serious rehydrating afterwards - and that was only in the press box. Both teams kept nothing in reserve. The pace was ferocious from start to finish.
The main turning point, however, came just before half-time. Waterford's hurling flowed in the opening 20 minutes and helped ease them into a 0-7 to 0-4 lead. John Mullane looked to be in fiery form, with Eoin Kelly operating tirelessly as usual at centre forward, and Ken McGrath getting his usual hold on midfield.
But Clare would steal a major advantage before half-time and never relinquish it. Diarmuid McMahon displayed great determination to score their first goal on the half hour, hauling himself past three Waterford defenders in the process. That levelled it, and then two minutes later Alan Markham was sent charging at the Waterford goal, and he slipped his shot just past Stephen Brenner. Clare were up by three, and fired up by even more.
Waterford still had plenty of hurling in them, and scores from Mullane and Dan Shanahan, and a huge one from Ken McGrath, levelled things again on 43 minutes.
Clare needed to dig deep again, and they did. Brian O'Connell and Colin Lynch chased every ball at midfield like wild animals, and Clare got their reward by jumping six points clear - thanks in part to a beautifully skilful goal from Tony Griffin.
Waterford lost Eoin McGrath on 54 minutes, and that clearly took some life out of their forward line.
Mullane and Paul Flynn hit some uncharacteristic wides, and Clare's fourth goal on 65 minutes - a second for Markham - ended all hopes of one last winning surge from Waterford.
Daly clearly realised the value of this victory. It will help erase further the thrashing Waterford gave them in last year's championship, but it also proves his older players such as Lynch and Brian and Frank Lohan can still compete with the best of them.
"A lot of it is mental," added Daly, "and an awful lot of our players felt they needed to deliver. A few more men had to stand up. You saw the old warriors out there again like Lynch and McMahon and the Lohans. They'll never drop the heads. And I think they were written off too soon. They could certainly last the pace out there in that sweltering heat.
"We got the goals as well, which we just didn't get against Tipperary that day. I think we missed something like 5-8 against Tipp. That was overlooked."
CLARE: 1 D Fitzgerald; 2 F Lohan (0-1), 3 B Lohan, 4 G O'Grady; 19 D Hoey, 6 S McMahon (0-2, one 65), 7 G Quinn; 8 B O'Connell (0-1), 9 C Lynch; 10 D McMahon (1-1), 22 A Quinn, 12 A Markham (2-0); 13 T Carmody, 14 N Gilligan (0-6, five frees), 15 T Griffin (1-2). Subs: 11 D Forde for Quinn (half-time), 25 D O'Rourke (0-1) for Forde (57 mins), 20 C Plunkett for Hoey (65 mins), D O'Connell for Carmody (68 mins), B Lynch for O'Connell (71 mins).
WATERFORD: 1 S Brenner; 2 T Feeney, 3 F Hartley, 7 E Murphy; 5 T Browne (0-1), 4 J Murray, 8 B Phelan; 6 K McGrath (0-4 two frees, one 65), 11 M Walsh (0-1); 10 D Shanahan (0-3), 9 E Kelly (0-3, one free), 12 E McGrath (0-1); 13 J Mullane (0-4), 14 S Prendergast, 15 P Flynn (0-4, all frees). Subs: P O'Brien for Prendergast (58 mins).
Referee: M Haverty (Galway).
