Clare prove worthy champions

An extraordinary, electric conclusion to a wonderful match brought down the curtain on another splendid Guinness All-Ireland hurling season. This first meeting of counties from the same province in the final was always going to be historic but it will live in the memory for many other reasons.

When the going got tough for Clare as they conceded two goals in the last 10 minutes, Jamesie O'Connor - quiet in the first half before starting to motor after the interval - was on hand to break the deadlock in the dying moments. Taking a pass from Colin Lynch, he took on the opposing defence as he has done all season and calmly pointed the decisive score.

O'Connor finished with seven points - leaving him just one adrift of DJ Carey in the championship scoring chart - including three from play but it was the last two that stood out. He followed the first Tipperary goal by Liam Cahill by snapping a point and after Ollie Baker had tied up the match, O'Connor settled the matter with another point - fittingly, a great match won by a great player.

Clare deserved the victory. They displayed resilience when the game was going against them, took some fine scores when they launched their second-half comeback and showed nerves of steel when the result was on the line in the closing minutes.

It was unlike any of Clare's previous matches this year, which they have dominated from start to finish despite the ultimately paltry margins of victory. Yesterday they were chasing the match for much of the 70 minutes but in the end, did what was necessary to ride out Tipperary's determined efforts.

Referee Dickie Murphy was his usual authoritative self and didn't have to perform any early Draconian interventions to keep order.

Nonetheless, controversy did attend a couple of scores: a Tipperary point was ruled wide in the 15th minute and their first goal was protested on the basis that Cahill was in the square.

Tipperary were indeed a changed side from that which had been flattered by a three-point defeat in July's Munster final. They took the game to Clare in a manner that gave the champions their most fearful 70 minutes of the season.

Yet in the face of this daunting task, Clare rose from the ashes of a dismal first half and put in 20 minutes of irresistible hurling to blow aside their four-point interval deficit and take a firm grip on the match.

Then, as Tipperary underlined the quality of their challenge with a revival which brought Clare back to edge of the abyss, the Munster champions held steady and in an eerie reprise of the provincial final denouement, John Leahy was clear on goal in the last minute.

As a goal chance, it was actually better than the one in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, as Leahy was unmarked. But with a levelling point guaranteed, he went for glory and Davy Fitzgerald in the Clare goal further underlined his credentials as a shot-stopper by moving to his right to save and Anthony Daly was on hand to launch what turned out to be the final clearance of the summer.

As usual, Ger Loughnane - like his Tipperary counterpart Len Gaynor, utterly insouciant in the face of dugout confinement (which they both ignored) - and his selectors moved their attack around before the throw-in, introducing Niall Gilligan, who had been controversially omitted after a good semi-final performance against Kilkenny.

Out went the man who had surprisingly held his place, Fergal Hegarty. Apparently he had 'flu and was deemed unfit for the full match, although he came on at the end of the first half.

The ploy of placing Fergie Tuohy at corner forward didn't work.

Scoring hero in the 1995 final, Tuohy didn't look fully recovered from the injury that kept him out of the semi-final, never got going on the combative Paul Shelly and was substituted without getting a run in his more usual half-forward role.

Gilligan in the other corner was nervous in the early exchanges with Michael Ryan, who was having his best match of the season, and Sparrow O'Loughlin was unable to revisit the Munster final torment of Noel Sheehy.

In the early exchanges, little ball was making its way through to the Clare forwards and what did arrive wasn't troubling the tightmarking Tipperary defence. Another major departure from the teams' previous meeting was that the Tipperary half backs were on their game.

Although Ollie Baker and Colin Lynch - both of whom played exceptionally well throughout - hurled a fair amount of ball in the first half, so too did Tommy Dunne and centrefield failed to provide a platform for any of the sweeping, pacy moves that had cut Tipperary open in the Munster final.

For their part Tipperary were playing with admirable simplicity, starting the team as named and moving the ball around their attack purposefully. Unlike in their semi-final, the team were not relying on a blitzkrieg start and instead patiently built a sound lead.

Declan Ryan was playing influentially on Sean McMahon and if he wasn't taking scores as fluently as he did on their previous meeting, he nonetheless set up three of the first-half points.

Beside him John Leahy was providing another piece of the jigsaw necessary for Tipperary to cause an upset.

Moving quickly around the half forwards, he helped himself to three points and gave no less a marker than Liam Doyle a ragged first half. Ominously for Clare, their vaunted full-back line was in difficulties (well, more than usual).

All three of Tipperary's inside line scored points in the first half and young Eugene O'Neill justified the faith of Len Gaynor and his selectors by posing hard questions for Brian Lohan and ending the day with 1-1 as well as being responsible for two other scores.

By half-time Clare, having faced the breeze, were four adrift, 0-6 to 0-10. It could have been worse but a brace of points from Gilligan, as soon as he switched corners, helped confer a little respectability on both the scoreboard and an attack which went for nearly the entire first half scoreless from play.

The interval permutations were stark: either Clare would not perform at all and lose or they would enjoy some phase of superiority and begin to put Tipperary under pressure - the latter scenario inextricably linked in most people's minds with a Tipperary collapse.

Only one change was made at half-time: Tipperary replaced Liam McGrath, who had failed to make much of an impact on Daly, with Aidan Ryan.

Two others were to try their luck on the Clare captain but to no avail as he had his best day of the championship.

Within five minutes, Clare had shaved three points off the deficit. Doyle, who went on to have a powerful second half, clearing a Tommy Dunne 65 off the line in the 53rd minute, came up from the back and pointed, followed by Conor Clancy and O'Loughlin. Clancy began to perform at centre forward and Clare warmed to the task.

In keeping with the success of their forward substitutions in the past, Loughnane and his selectors sent on David Forde in the 46th minute and shortly afterwards he had won the free which Jamesie O'Connor converted to push Clare ahead for the first time in over 40 minutes. The substitute added two further points within 10 minutes of his appearance but also threw in some erratic distribution to qualify slightly his contribution.

Behind this considerably enhanced scoring performance, the defence had also raised the stakes. McMahon was again commanding at the heart of it all and Brian Lohan, for all that he will be miffed at O'Neill's tally, tidied and cleared a good deal of ball.

Liam Cahill replaced Michael Cleary in the 57th minute and within hardly any time of appearing, had drawn a converted free and converged on a dropping ball from Leahy to kick to the net. This reduced the margin to a point, 0-17 to 1-13.

Five minutes later, Dunne's dipping 65 came off the crossbar for Eugene O'Neill to goal on the rebound in an echo of the famous Eamonn Taaffe score which effectively won the 1995 All-Ireland for Clare.

The tension was heart-stopping but before the ominous implications set in, the estimable Baker equalised within seconds, setting the stage for the dramatic endgame to follow.