Tipperary 0-22 Cork 0-13

Rampant Tipperary have booked their place in the semi-finals of the Munster Senior Hurling Championship. 

The holders ran out nine-point winners over old rivals Cork in a desperately disappointing quarter-final clash at Semple Stadium this afternoon. 

Tipp were far too good for the Rebels in front of 29,114 spectators in Thurles, as ace marksmen Seamus Callanan and John 'Bubbles' O'Dwyer collected 0-15 between them. 

Tipp will face Limerick in the semi-finals on 19 June, with Cork left to pick up the pieces ahead of another crack at the All-Ireland qualifiers. 

Last time these two sides met, in the final round of Allianz League Division 1A group fixtures, Tipp won by 12 points.

The margin was slightly less today but the gulf in class between the two sides remained pretty much the same.

Hawk-Eye made its debut at Semple Stadium, and judged three efforts wide, as a Tipp team containing four championship debutants from the start made light work of their opponents, in what was a first championship game at the helm for rival managers Michael Ryan and Kingston.

Despite going 17 minutes without a score in the second half, Tipp were far too good and they led by eleven points at one stage in the second half, 0-16 to 0-05.

Cork worked their way back to within seven points and Patrick Horgan went for goal from a 20m free when a point would have brought the deficit back to six.

Tipp kicked on to lead by ten points again, 0-19 to 0-09, before cruising home as the game petered out.

At half-time, Tipp were nine clear and coasting, leading by 0-14 to 0-05 in front of 29,114 spectators.

Weather conditions might not have been conducive to good hurling but Tipp still managed to produce some picture-book stuff in the first half, with O’Dwyer particularly impressive.

The amount of space they were afforded in which to work was an obvious factor, of course, and Cork elected to play against the breeze despite winning the toss.

Tipp’s link-play up front was too much for Cork to cope with but the Rebels didn’t help their cause either with a number of unforced errors while attempting to work the ball out of defence.

Tipp’s forwards were working hard but nevertheless, some of Cork’s mistakes were elementary, including the non-execution of handpasses to teammates no more than a few yards away from each other.

Cork also dropped too much aimless ball down on top of the Tipperary cover, as Ronan Maher, Pádraic Maher and debutant Seamus Kennedy appeared to rotate in the sweeper role.

Cork were sitting deep themselves but Tipp were finding it far too easy to open them up, cruising into a 0-07 to 0-01 lead within 17 minutes, five unanswered points helping them to open up that gap.

Some of the points in that spell were superb from Tipp – leading scorer Callanan arcing over one brilliant effort from the New Stand touchline after barrelling his marker Damian Cahalane out of the way.

It appeared that Callanan was about to play a crossfield ball but he took a punt at the posts instead and struck gold.

Tipp were switching the play intelligently, mixing it up with diagonal balls left and right into the forward line, and the movement inside was causing the Cork defence all sorts of bother.

Tipp’s lead grew to eight points – 0-12 to 0-04 – and increased further by the interval.  

Cork managed just three points from play in that first half, supplied by Conor Lehane, Brian Lawton and Alan Cadogan, but it was a bitterly disappointing showing from the Leesiders right from the start.

Not even a couple of early shemozzles could spark the visitors into life and instead, it was Tipp who utterly dictated the terms of engagement all over the field.

Tipperary: D Gleeson; C Barrett, J Barry, M Cahill; S Kennedy, R Maher, Pádraic Maher (0-01); B Maher (0-01), M Breen; S Curran, D McCormack, N McGrath (0-02); J O’Dwyer (0-07, 2f, 1 65), S Callanan (0-08, 4f), J McGrath (0-01).

Subs: J Forde (0-01) for N McGrath (51), Patrick Maher for Curran (56), N O’Meara for O’Dwyer (64), K Bergin (0-01) for Breen (64).

Cork: A Nash; D Cahalane, M Ellis, C O’Sullivan; L McLoughlin, C Joyce, C Murphy (0-01); D Kearney, W Egan; B Cooper, C Lehane (0-02, 1f), B Lawton (0-01); A Cadogan (0-03), S Harnedy (0-01), P Cronin (0-04f).

Subs: A Walsh for Kearney (32), K Burke for O’Sullivan (41), L O’Farrell (0-01) for Horgan (53), J Cronin for Cooper (59).

Referee: B Kelly (Westmeath).