Lohan star shines brightest

Of the many things we thought we knew before yesterday's Guinness All-Ireland hurling semi-final, here is the principal one that turned out wrong: Waterford couldn't hurl as well as they did in the Munster final but they would hurl sufficiently well to beat Clare. Seán Moran reports from Croke Park

In the opening minutes Waterford did emulate the electrical storm that had fried Tipperary and it was 0-7 to 0-2 after 13 minutes. But that crackling start led to nothing more exhilarating than a power drain and by the end of the match all the frailties, supposedly banished in Waterford's brave new world, came back to haunt the Munster champions.

The sweeping grandeur of Justin McCarthy's game plan six weeks previously in Páirc Uí Chaoimh faded to grey until the display disintegrated into something as hasty and ill considered as the All-Ireland semi-final of four years ago. As if in tacit affirmation of this unhappy memory, three of the 1998 forwards had joined the team from the replacements bench by the end of the match.

Clare were as knotty and resistant as had been expected but these familiar qualities met with greater success than most people would have expected before the match. In ways it was a re-run of the quarter-final success against Galway: threatened by early deluge, they somehow clung on and having weathered the worst, got a grip on their less experienced opponents and slowly squeezed the life out of them.

The amazing thing about this ultimately comfortable victory is that once more, Clare did not play anywhere approaching their best. Certainly the defence was excellent - backboned by McMahon and a majestic Brian Lohan behind him - and ground down the lively Waterford forwards and centrefield was solid throughout - with Ollie Baker coming on for his best display this season - but the attack had another very mixed afternoon.

There were stirrings of life and, crucially, nearly all the forwards got in on the act at various stages.

Taken as a whole there was one very good and one reasonable performance but four fairly poor ones as well.

Fortunately for Clare, the good bits kicked in at the right time. James O'Connor's best period helped the team keep in touch with Waterford. Alan Markham's two minutes of inspiration before the break yielded 1-1, which eliminated any deficit. Tony Carmody's brace built the lead.

These were critical little cameos that helped shape the outcome but no one dominant scene that changed the outcome of a very dramatic afternoon. The first half passed in a blaze of fine hurling, especially in the opening quarter. It was like a big hitting tennis match, with scores being reeled off in swift, explosive bursts.

In that context Clare were struggling to return service. The first seven minutes were each marked by a point, five to Waterford, as the pace of it all dazed the big crowd. There was little sign of the ring-rustiness of the provincial champions - a condition that has been well recorded in the football championship.

Waterford simply took up where they had left off six weeks ago. There was the same litany of changes, and the same flying game-plan and Clare offered as little resistance as Tipp had done. Eoin Kelly had three points up by the seventh minute. (He would add only one more and in between had three wides.)

Any puzzlement over Andy Moloney's selection also turned out to have been misplaced. The former Tipperary player started at centrefield and settled in well with Tony Browne, getting through a lot of work.

In a way he was undone by the quality of his display as well as the misfortune of others.

Sean McMahon took such a hold at centre back that Ken McGrath made hardly any impact and neither did Seamus Prendergast. Moloney was sent in at centre forward for the second half but, inevitably, fared no better.

Clare's switches meanwhile had better fortune. Tony Griffin started at wing forward but dropped back to centrefield - where he has under-age experience - and hurled well alongside the perpetual motion of Colin Lynch. It was Lynch who presaged Clare's comeback.

They trailed 0-2 to 0-7 when he galloped through the middle and drew a save and 65 out of Stephen Brenner.

It would be quicker when awarding 65s to Clare to simply chalk up the score, so consistent has Sean McMahon been off the placed ball. It was this 65 and another in quick succession that got the scoreboard clicking in Clare's direction yesterday.

The infuriating thing for Waterford is they were well positioned to strike back even as the match was tightening around them. John Mullane and Prendergast converged on a ball in the 19th minute, only for the latter to lunge at it and fail to get an adequate connection. That and the goal that would follow four minutes later could have put a gap between the teams again.

Waterford needed a score when Paul Flynn addressed a close-in free but most sensed that a point would do.

Instead he went for goal. David Fitzgerald got a stick to it but the ball deflected into the net. Brian Lohan on the line obviously felt his goalkeeper had it covered but was powerless to block the deflection.

Despite this encouraging development, a double scores lead 1-7 to 0-5, Waterford hit the rocks before half-time. Crucially in the 35th minute Peter Queally was uncharacteristically buffeted into losing the ball on his own endline. Forde snapped it up, crossed accurately to Markham who finished with admirable crispness, given the struggle for form he has had to cope with recently.

Adding insult to injury, Clare managed a point in injury-time to lead at the interval. In retrospect the match was over, as they were never led again. Even at the time it dawned on many that Waterford might have by this stage given it their best shot. So it turned out. Like a boxer dismayed after a whirlwind start to find his opponent still standing, Waterford began to panic.

Their tactical response couldn't stop the decline and the only thing that kept the game alive was the jaw-dropping inaccuracies from poor Niall Gilligan. He could have ended up Clare's leading scorer so often did he beat his man but instead conjured up unbelievable wides - including a 20-metre free.

It was a jolt to discover that Waterford actually managed more wides than Clare but theirs were frequently hit-and-hope jobs whereas Clare's were gilt-edged. Had Clare lost, their imperious backs wouldn't have spoken to the forwards again.

But curiously it never seemed as if Waterford would bridge that gap. There were chances but even a late goal raid by Flynn was whipped away from him by McMahon as the cover converged. The only nasty shock for Clare was the clash in which Gerry Quinn - who together with the effective David Hoey had sealed the flanks of the defence - suffered a serious arm fracture.

A desperate disappointment for him but the county is closing in on cloud nine.

HOW THEY LINED OUT

CLARE: 1 Fitzgerald; 2 B Quinn, 3 B Lohan (capt), 4 F Lohan; 5 D Hoey, 6 S McMahon, 7 G Quinn; 8 J Reddan, 9 C Lynch; 11 T Griffin, 10 J O'Connor, 15 A Markham; 14 T Carmody, 12 N Gilligan, 13 D Forde. Subs: 21 O Baker for Reddan (51 mins), 24 A Quinn for G Quinn (72 mins).

WATERFORD: 1 S Brenner; 2 B Greene, 3 T Feeney, 4 B Flannery; 8 P Queally, 6 F Hartley (capt), 7 E Murphy; 5 T Browne, 11 A Moloney; 9 E Kelly, 12 K McGrath, 15 P Flynn; 10 E McGrath, 14 S Prendergast, 13 J Mullane. Subs: 20 D Bennett for E McGrath (55 mins), 21 D Shanahan for Prendergast (55 mins), 18 J Murray for Browne (67 mins), 22 M White for Mullan (70 mins).