First blood to Limerick, but a bigger days are ahead

In the first of two meetings between the sides in a month, it was first blood to Limerick on Saturday afternoon last when they beat Waterford 2-15 to 1-15 in Kilmallock at the quarter final stages of this year’s Waterford Crystal Cup.

TJ Ryan’s Limerick side will now meet UCC at the same venue in the semi final stages of the competition on Saturday afternoon next while for Waterford the side will be fulfilling a number of fixtures against the likes of Kilkenny, Tipperary and Clare in a bid to be prepared for a repeat clash between the two counties in the opening round of the National League at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick on St Valentine’s Night.

Derek McGrath and his selectors opted to make four changes to the team that had beaten Limerick Institute of Technology at Carriganore a week earlier in the preliminary round of games, bringing in Stephen O’Keeffe, Mark McNulty, Donie Breathnach and Jake Dillon for Ian O’Regan, Barry Coughlan, Pauric Mahony and Michael Walsh.

Limerick manager TJ Ryan fielded just seven of the side that lost out to Kilkenny in last years All-Ireland semi final at Croke Park, with two of the starting fifteen Cian Lynch and Patrick Begley making their first start in a competitive fixture. Tom Morrissey who started with the Limerick Minors also made his debut in this game, coming on as a sub at the break.

It was Waterford that had the better of the early exchanges in this game going two points up with points from Martin O’Neill and Tommy Connors inside the opening three minutes of the game.

With twenty minutes played Waterford were still two points to the good holding a 0-5 to 0-3 lead, and it was son extended when Brian O’Halloran who has impressed in the Waterford colours over the past few games delivered a perfectly weighted ball over to Jake Dillon who make no mistake in dispatching to the bet after which Martin O’Neill and Dillon knocked over points to give Waterford a 1-7 to 0-3 lead with nine minutes of normal time to go till the break.

Limerick however would finish the half the stronger of the two sides, hitting five of the next six scores, one of which was a goal from Adrian Breen who capitalised on a dropping ball around the Waterford goal to send his side in at the break trailing 1-8 to 1-7.

Waterford began the second half with Jake Dillon putting over an early point but by the mid way point of the second half Waterford were behind as Shane Fives had the misfortune to put the ball past his own goal keeper when contesting with Patrick Begley after Donal O’Grady delivered the ball in around the Waterford goal mouth for a score that gave Limerick a 2-9 to 1-9 advantage.

Waterford for the remainder of the game stayed in touch with a series of frees from Martin O’Neill, but they never looked like getting anything from the game, even after the entry of Michael Walsh, Shane Bennett and Cormac Curran who scored a quality point from a difficult angle with eight minutes to go.

Limerick: Nicky Quaid; Conor Allis, Richie McCarthy, Seamus Hickey; Dan Morrissey, Wayne McNamara, Tom Condon; James Ryan, Cathal King; David Breen, Niall Moran, Cian Lynch; Thomas O'Brien, Patrick Begley, Adrian Breen. Subs: Donal O'Grady for David Breen (10), Tom Morrissey for Thomas O'Brien, Paul Browne for Niall Moran (55), Shane Dowling for Adrian Breen (60).

Scorers: Adrian Breen 1-3; Cian Lynch 0-3, Shane Fives 1-0 (OG); Donal O’Grady, Thomas O’Brien (1f) 0-2; Cathal King, Dan Morrissey, Tom Morrissey, Niall Moran, Shane Dowling (f) 0-1.

Waterford: Stephen O’Keefe; Shane McNulty, Shane Fives, Noel Connors; Gavin O’Brien, Austin Gleeson, Pa Walsh; Martin O’Neill, Shane O’Sullivan; Kevin Moran, Tommy Connors, Donie Breathnach; Brian O’Halloran, Jake Dillon, Michael Kearney. Subs: Cormac Curran for Donie Breathnach (39mins), Michael Walsh for Brian O’Halloran (50mins), Shane Bennett for Thomas Connors (56mins), Barry Coughlan for Jake Dillon (66mins).

Scorers: M O’Neill 0-8 (7fs); J Dillon 1-3 (3fs); T Connors 0-2; S O’Sullivan, C Curran 0-1 each.

REFEREE: Damien Fox (Clare).