Waterford Crystal Cup Senior Hurling Preliminary Round – UL 1-11 Waterford 0-10

UL defeated Waterford by 1-11 to 0-10 in the Waterford Crystal Cup Hurling Preliminary Round on Sunday January 12^th at Carriganore.

Glynn UL ace as Déise fail to fire

UL 1-11 Waterford 0-10

By Tomás McCarthy

On a squally afternoon of furious wind and drenching showers, UL won an instantly forgettable squabble to spoil Derek McGrath’s first day at the helm of the Déise hurlers. Brian Lohan’s pupils managed to limit the damage against the elements to two points and kicked on after Jonathon Glynn glanced to the net three minutes into the second-half. Seventeen wides reflected the struggles of the home side in front of the posts and their persistent issues in converting placed balls. By comparison, an economical UL only missed three and Tommy Heffernan was faultless on frees.

McGrath was frank in his post-match judgement. “We just didn’t turn up at all and we have a lot of work to do obviously.” He detected edginess in their play. “Lads were probably over trying things and trying to implement the short game and we made handling errors and things like that. I wouldn’t put it down to bad attitude; it was maybe more down to just over trying in actual fact and not relaxing in terms of the hurling.” Waterford called on nine forwards over the 70 but only Maurice Shanahan managed to score from play after a wait of 54 minutes. “There was no penetration and we didn’t really create any openings in terms of goal opportunities,” the new bainsteoir conceded. The home side were 0-6 to 0-4 ahead at half time after failing to capitalise on the weather forces in their favour. They accumulated nine wides. Shane O’Sullivan pinged over two corkers from 65 metres with Jamie Nagle and Kevin Moran also delivering from distance.

Maurice Shanahan added two frees in an attack that was outhustled for the most part. The UL puckout struggled to reach 30 metres, yet they sprayed the sliotar around smartly. Captain Padraic Walsh was omnipresent at wing back and Jonathon Glynn offered a nuisance factor at number 14. Their scores came through three frees from substitute Tommy Heffernan and one from Tom O’Brien who was forced off. That fragile two point advantage for the hosts evaporated on 38 minutes when Glynn tipped home Brian Stapleton’s dangerous delivery. Centre-forward Stapleton and Walsh ran the show as the students stretched five points in front (1-8 to 0-6) entering the last quarter. Philip Mahony and Michael Walsh did try to engineer a recovery plan from the half back line but Waterford only had four Maurice Shanahan points to show for their second-half efforts.

Victorious manager Brian Lohan was impressed by how they weathered the first-half storm while acknowledging that Waterford’s shooting woes boosted their hopes. “We have got smart guys and guys who are well able to hurl. In those sort of conditions, you want to keep the ball for as long as you can and we did that fairly well in the first-half. Waterford missed an awful lot of scores and an awful lot of frees and that helped us as well.” UL progress to meet WIT in the quarters at the same venue while McGrath is already planning to fill the month long gap to the league opener against Tipperary. “We are playing Offaly on Tuesday night in Tinryland and we have another game lined up for the weekend. Just plenty of games and plenty of gametime and that’s what we need. We have a huge amount of work to do but we are not too despondent. We will talk about it inside and get to the end of it.”

Scorers for UL: T Heffernan 0-5 (5fs); J Glynn 1-0; B Stapleton 0-2; M O’Neill, M Ryan, P Walsh, T O’Brien (f) 0-1 each.

Scorers for Waterford: M Shanahan 0-6 (5fs); S O’Sullivan 0-2; J Nagle, K Moran 0-1 each.

UL: S Hassett (Tipperary); M Carmody (Limerick), J Sheehan (Cork), J Browne (Clare); D Quinn (Tipperary), D Morrissey (Limerick), P Walsh (Kilkenny); B Maher (Tipperary), T Ryan (Limerick); C Malone (Clare), B Stapleton (Tipperary), T O’Brien (Limerick); J Forde (Tipperary), J Glynn (Galway), E Murphy (Waterford).

Subs: T Heffernan (Tipperary) for O’Brien (10); M Ryan (Limerick) for Murphy (42); M O’Neill (Clare) for Forde (46); P Ryan (Tipperary) for Quinn (55).

WATERFORD: S O’Keeffe; S Fives, B Coughlan, T Bourke; Philip Mahony, M Walsh, K Moran; S O’Sullivan, J Nagle; J Dillon, S Walsh, R Barry; R Donnelly, M Shanahan, J Barron.

Subs: S Molumphy for Barry (H-T); I O’Regan for O’Keeffe (H-T); Pauric Mahony for Donnelly (43); S Roche for Barron (47).

Referee: C McAllister (Cork)

When – Sunday January 12^th at 2:00pm

Where – WIT GAA Grounds Carriganore

Referee – Cathal McAllister (Cork)

Extra time – (2 periods x 10 minutes only) to be played if sides finish level at the end of 70 minutes

Contact Munster GAA PRO Ed Donnelly at pro.munster@gaa.ie for more information

For the Record

Waterford Crystal Cup Senior Hurling 2014

Preliminary Round (Extra Time)

Sunday January 12^th

@ WIT GAA Grounds Carriganore Waterford v University of Limerick                      @ 2:00pm

@ Newcastlewest                            Limerick v IT Tralee                                                  @ 2:00pm

@ MacDonagh Park Nenagh        Tipperary v LIT                                                          @ 2:00pm

Quarter-Finals (Extra Time)

Sunday January 19^th

@ Austin Stack Park Tralee           Kerry v Tipperary or LIT

@ WIT GAA Grounds Carriganore WIT v Waterford or UL

@ Clare venue                                 Clare v Limerick or IT Tralee

@ Mardyke                                        UCC v Mary I

Semi-Finals (Extra Time)

Sunday January 26^th

Final (Extra Time)

Sunday February 2^nd

Waterford Crystal Cup Senior Hurling – Odds and Ends

35 goals were scored in the 2013 Waterford Crystal Cup competition over 11 matches (an average of 3.2 goals per match). This is the exact same number of goals scored in the 2012 competition while only 23 goals were scored in the 2011 competition over 10 matches (an average of 2.3 goals per match).

Since the Waterford Crystal Cup began in 2006, Clare (18 wins), Tipperary (15 wins) and Waterford (13 wins) have accounted for 46 of the 81 victories in the competition (57%).

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.

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.

Since the Waterford Crystal Cup began in 2006, 66 games have been played with just 1 draw – the 2012 Limerick v Clare Quarter-Final after two periods of extra time.

The record of the Third Level Colleges in the Waterford Crystal Cup since 2006 is Won 21, Lost 45, a 32% success rate.

Waterford have lost their last 2 matches in the Waterford Crystal Cup having won 8 in a row from 2010 to 2012.

Limerick’s victory over Mary Immaculate College in the 2013 Preliminary round is their only victory in the Waterford Crystal Cup dating back to 2006.

Clare are the only team who have won at least one game each year since the Waterford Crystal Cup competition began in 2006. Clare also have the best won / lost record in the competition, winning 18 and drawing 1 of their 25 matches played while winning 2 titles.

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 6 seasons.

Waterford Crystal Cup Senior Hurling Roll Of Honour

Tipperary (3) – 2007, 2008, 2012

Waterford (2) – 2010, 2011

Clare (2) – 2009, 2013

Limerick (1) – 2006

University of Limerick Panel

The University of Limerick Hurling Panel for the Waterford Crystal Cup includes the following players –

Matthew Ryan            Tipperary

Mark Carmody           Limerick

Jason Forde                Tipperary

Brian Stapleton           Tipperary

Podge Collins              Clare

Conor Ryan                Clare

Stephen Daniels          Waterford

Jack Browne               Clare

Cathal Malone             Clare

Paul Flanagan             Clare

Tommy Heffernan      Tipperary

Pa Ryan                      Tipperary

Seadna Morey                        Clare

Dan Morrissey            Limerick

Mark Deegan              Limerick

Thomas Ryan             Limerick

Bill Maher                    Tipperary

Thomas O Brien         Limerick

Kevin O Brien             Limerick

John Fitzgibbon           Limerick

Padraic Walsh             Kilkenny

Johnathan Glynn        Galway