Waterford Crystal Cup Senior Hurling Quarter Final – Waterford 3-19 UCC 1-19

Déise have too much power for students but boss still seeks improvement

Waterford 3-19 UCC 1-19

By John Murphy for the Irish Examiner newspaper

New Waterford hurling manager Michael Ryan had mixed feelings after his side deservedly defeated UCC in the quarter-final of the Waterford Crystal Cup at Carriganore yesterday. The victory sets up a semi-final next Sunday against the winners of the midweek Clare/Limerick replay. Ryan said afterwards: “I was delighted with our first-half performance but there was much to concern me after the interval, especially the way we conceded the last quarter of an hour to the students. “There’s a lot to work to be done and we will definitely need to improve our overall play if we are to progress.”

UCC lined out with just three of the side which scored a resounding Fitzgibbon Cup victory over DCU earlier in the week, and for most of the opening half they played second best to the home side. All credit to them however for effective half-time substitutions, particularly the introduction of Shane Bourke and William Griffin, and the students were generally in control of the final 15 minutes. With the Waterford half-back trio of Jamie Nagle, Kevin Moran, and Shane O’Sullivan in command, it was virtually one-way trafficin the opening half. They eased into a 0-7 to 0-2 lead after a quarter of an hour, scoring quality points, and their goal in the 20th minute put them firmly in command.

The clinical finish came from new team captain Michael “Brick’’ Walsh who revelled in his restoration to the attack. It came after some great work by the other Walsh, Shane, who delivered a pinpoint pass to the skipper. Further goals followed by Martin O’Neill in the 29th minute and a superb one from Maurice Shanahan two minutes before the break with the skipper acting as provider this time. Waterford were a comfortable 11 points to the good, 3-10 to 0-8, at the interval. However, the students never threw in the towel and substitutes Burke and Griffin impacted positively on the proceedings. They clipped over some fine points, most notably an absolute peach from midfielder Seamas Corry, and with Brian Hartnett’s influence also strengthening the students all but encamped in Waterford’s half. It was Hartnett’s well-taken goal in the 68th minute that gave the final scoreline the measure of respectability that the students fully deserved. Waterford still had the final say with Shane O’Sullivan’s delightful free from over 90m sailing between the posts.

Scorers for Waterford: M. O’Neill (1-8, 0-7 frees); M. Walsh (1-3); M. Shanahan (1-0); S. O’Sullivan(0-2); S. Prendergast, S. Walsh, D. Twomey, S. Molumphy, J. Nagle, P. O’Brien(0-1) each.

Scorers for UCC: B. Hartnett(1-2); P. O’Mahony (0-5, 0-4 frees); B. O’Sullivan (0-3); W. Griffin(0-3, frees); S. Bourke (0-2); P. Haughney, E. O’Sullivan, D. McCormack, S. Corry (0-1) each.

WATERFORD: I. O’Regan; P. Prendergast. C. Ryan. A. Kearney; J. Nagle. K. Moran. S. O’Sullivan; S. Molumphy. D. Twomey; M. Shanahan. M. Walsh. S. Prendergast; M. O’Neill. S. Walsh. B. O’Halloran.

Subs: P. O’Brien for Walsh (HT);D. Prendergast for P. Prendergast(58); P. Nevin for Twomey (58); T. Ryan for Shanahan, inj(63).

UCC: P. O’Brien (Cork); T. Curran (Waterford). Pat O’Mahony (Cork). D. Fives (Waterford); J Barry (Tipperary). J Nagle (Cork). A. Hannigan (Tipperary); S. Corry (Cork). B. Collins (Cork); D. McCormack (Tipperary). B Murray (Cork). Pauric Mahony (Waterford); P. Haughney (Cork). B. O’Sullivan (Waterford). B. Hartnett (Cork).

Subs: S Bourke (Tipperary) for Collins (34 mins); W. Egan for Nagle (HT); S. Maher (Tipperary) for Hannigan (HT); W. Griffin for Haughney (HT); E. O’Sullivan for Pauric Mahony (64).

Referee; Shane Hourigan, Limerick

For the Record

Waterford Crystal Cup Senior Hurling 2012

Preliminary Round

Sunday January 22^nd

@ Dolla                                              Tipperary 2-24 Limerick Institute of Technology 1-16

Sunday January 29^th

@ Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney       Kerry 1-20 IT Tralee 1-15

@ Sixmilebridge                               Clare 3-25 WIT 0-5

Quarter-Finals (Extra time)

Saturday February 4^th

@ MacDonagh Park Nenagh          Tipperary v University of Limerick               @ 2:00pm

@ Pairc Ui Rinn                                Cork v Kerry                                                   @ 3:00pm

@ Sixmilebridge                               Limerick v Clare                                            @ 7:00pm

Sunday February 5^th

@ WIT Sportsgrounds                      Waterford v UCC                                          @ 2:00pm

Semi-Finals (Extra time)
Sunday February 12^th

@ TBC                                               Cork or Kerry v UL or Tipperary
@ TBC                                               Limerick or Clare v Waterford or UCC

Final (Extra time)

Date TBC

Waterford Crystal Cup Senior Hurling – Odds and Ends

Waterford have won 11 of their last 13 matches in the Waterford Crystal Cup, including a current winning streak of 7 matches.

Clare are the only team who have won at least one game each year since the Waterford Crystal Cup competition began in 2006.

39 players scored in the three matches played in the preliminary round.

The record of the Third Level Colleges in the Waterford Crystal Cup since 2006 is Won 18, Lost 37, a 33% success rate. Since the Third Level Colleges entered the McGrath Cup (Senior Football) in 2005, their success rate is 32%.

Tipperary won their first 6 home matches in the Waterford Crystal Cup from 2006 to 2009 before losing their first round matches in 2010 (v Clare at Borrisoleigh) and in 2011 (v WIT at Clonmel).

Tipperary hold the record for the longest winning streak in the Waterford Crystal Cup since the competition began under that guise in 2006 when they won 10 consecutive matches between 2007 and 2009.

Limerick won the first Waterford Crystal Cup title in 2006, winning four matches in the process. Since then, in three appearances in the competition they have failed to win a game.

The University of Limerick is the only third level college to have a winning record in the Waterford Crystal Cup since 2006 – winning 7 games and losing 6.

IT Tralee is the only team not to win a game in the Waterford Crystal Cup since 2006, losing their first match in the last 5 seasons.

None of the five teams who take part in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship have a losing record in the Waterford Crystal Cup since 2006.

Waterford Crystal Cup

Waterford Crystal began their sponsorship of the Munster pre-season hurling competition in 2006. Prior to this, the competition was played in different formats dating back to the early 1990’s and was most popularly known as the South Eastern Hurling League which also included county teams from Leinster.

Waterford Crystal Cup Senior Hurling Roll Of Honour

Waterford (2) – 2010, 2011

Tipperary (2) – 2007, 2008

Clare (1) – 2009

Limerick (1) – 2006

Waterford Crystal Cup – 2012 Scorers