Former Limerick attacker Shane Dowling offered a scathing verdict on the Tipperary-Kilkenny league encounter in Thurles, describing it as "one of the worst games of hurling" he'd seen in a long time.
Colm Bonnar's side scrambled out with the two points eventually, Jason Forde whipping over a free to leave the hosts a nose in front at the end, having withstood a second half Kilkenny fightback.
However, Dowling was deeply unimpressed with the fare on show, characterising it as being akin to a "poor training match" and comparing it unfavourably to the game between Limerick and Galway on Saturday night.
"It was one of the worst games of hurling I've seen in a long time," Dowling said on the RTÉ GAA podcast.
"That may be an unpopular opinion. But if you saw some of the shots that players got off yesterday... if it was a training match and I was over them, I'd be pulling them in after 15 or 20 minutes.
"You look at the Limerick-Galway game, how much of that match was down to quality players or great hurling? Yeah, bits of it were. But a huge amount was down to effort and workrate and tackles and hits and intensity.
"There was none of that in the Tipperary-Kilkenny game, in my opinion.
"Jason Forde was exceptional, he's a really good hurler. But, and I'm not being smart, if you're an inter-county player and you're getting that space, you should be putting the ball over the bar.
"I just thought the quality on show, more so from Kilkenny, was really poor. I thought Kilkenny would win the game, I still think they should have won the game if you look at the couple of mistakes that were made.
"I think both teams are a long, long way off what's going to be required to win an All-Ireland. I could be eating humble pie but I was very disappointed with what I saw yesterday.
"I just thought it was like a very, very poor training match."
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Dowling was especially critical of Kilkenny, particularly their use of the ball. While he was keen to stress that there are quality players in the county, he found their wastefulness in possession alarming.
"You look at Kilkenny, you look at Huw Lawlor, Paddy Deegan, Paudie Walsh, I think they're really good hurlers.
"But how many times did somebody get a ball in and around their own 21 or 45, fire it down the other end of the field to two or three opposition players in space? I don't get what that's about.
"Are teams not being coached now to try to maintain the ball? I get when you've new players coming in, it takes a bit of time. I know it's only the second round of the league.
"I thought Tipperary were better, they tried to work the short game a lot more. There were snippets of it. There were also snippets of them hitting long ball as well. There were signs they were trying to do the right thing.
"At least with Tipperary, I saw they were trying to work the ball through the lines. That failed at times and maybe it failed when they came under pressure.
"But with Kilkenny, I just didn't see it."
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