Enthused by TG4’s excellent coverage of the drawn match in Thurles the previous week, An Moltóir took himself off to Walsh Park last Saturday to run the rule over the second instalment of the Ballygunner/Toomevara Munster club championship encounter. It certainly was a worthwhile trip, as these two evenly matched sides treated us to another rip-roaring tussle that went right down to the wire.

The experts in the national ‘meeja’ had tut-tutted about the standard of hurling in the Thurles game. This is almost to miss the point about this competition - which is all about character and commitment to the honour of the parish. The vast majority of the Thurles attendance and, indeed, of TV watchers will scarcely have given a hoot about the quality of the hurling as they looked on transfixed while both teams fought themselves to a standstill. An Moltóir himself reckoned that, in the Thurles game, Ballygunner were put on the back foot by Toom’s explosive start and allowed anxiety to undermine the poise they had displayed against St. Joseph’s Doora Barefield in the first round. However, they did show a degree of fighting spirit almost unknown among Waterford teams in such situations, and deserved to survive in the end.

While the excitement was equally intense, the Walsh Park replay was different in many respects. There was a much nastier flavour to the exchanges, with the referee flashing yellow cards left and right. The tighter confines of the pitch and the clinging nature of the surface may have contributed to this, but heightened tension among the players was probably the main culprit. This was evident even before the throw-in as the midfield players jostled for position and Eoin Brislane got stuck into Fergal Hartley.

Brislane, a big strong player and a good ballwinner, was placed on the forty clearly with the objective of stopping Hartley dominating in the area as he had done in Thurles. In this he succeeded to a considerable extent. However, the occasion and perhaps the added responsibility placed on his young shoulders clearly got to him. He got himself booked early on, and proceeded to commit several further personal fouls before the referee finally had enough and sent him to the line in the middle of the second half.

Toomevara’s other big switch was to locate Tommy Dunne in the pivotal position in defence, where he gave a typically polished performance embellished by a couple of massive pointed frees from out the field. His brothers also did their bit, with Terry being the dominant figure at midfield while Ken, as in Thurles, found some early space to knock over a couple of good points and was flawless in his freetaking before eventually stumbling with his crucial last-minute free from an acute angle out on the left. Overall, Toom did as much as they probably could have in this game. They showed great character in not allowing the Gunners to build a platform on their two superb first half goals, and landed a series of great points from out the field. Had both Tony Delaney and Paddy O’Brien been available, they would surely be looking forward to a Munster final now.

Nonetheless, Ballygunner probably should have won this game more comfortably. For such an experienced team, they repeatedly took the wrong options. Thus we had Paul Flynn crazily going for a goal from a free with his team three points ahead just on the half-time whistle. Tony Carroll retaliated after being fouled straight in front of the goal, thus swapping a certain point for a throw-in. Andy Moloney went for hat-trick glory after being put in possession following a great Tom Fives solo run, when a tap-over point was the correct option. Put in the clear from a great Ballygunner move, Paul Foley, instead of taking the point, made a beeline for goal and eventually conceded a free for overcarrying. When you add in two bad misses by Andy Moloney from straightforward fifty-yard shots at goal, you can see that the Gunners should not have been in the position of scrambling desperately to hold on in the closing stages.

That they did survive can be put down to a repeat of the defensive qualities displayed in Thurles. While Hartley was not as prominent, Frampton recovered from his early difficulties with Ken Dunne to emerge as man of the match. Colin Kehoe on the other wing also did very well, while the inside line fought tenaciously for every scrap. Up front, they did not get much change from an alert and determined Toom rearguard apart, that is, from Andy Moloney’s two mortal first half incisions. Moloney is a big wholehearted hurler of limited enough skill who likes the open spaces. It came as a bit of a surprise, therefore, to see him ghosting into threatening positions close to the Toom goal and then finishing with devastating power and accuracy.

So how will Ballygunner fare next Sunday against Blackrock? They have surprised many people in Waterford who reckoned they had passed their sell-by date following last year’s eclipse by Mount Sion. Clearly Andy Moloney has been a huge acquisition while last year’s rookies Alan Kirwan and Colin Kehoe are now key members of the team. Tom Fives has been performing with unprecedented constancy while Ray Whitty seems to have finally eschewed his notorious tendency for Barthez-like clangers.

But will they fall victim to the traditional Déise inclination to go to pieces on the big day? Will we have Paul Flynn and Tom Fives going ‘missing’ and Whitty gifting goals to the opposition? In Wayne Sherlock, John Browne and company they will be coming up against as tight a defence as there is in the game, while Alan Browne has been doing a good imitation of Jonah Lomu in terms of unstoppability.

It is unlikely that the Rockies are that far removed from the general mediocrity which has afflicted Cork club hurling in recent years. But they are from the Rebel County and this is a Munster final against a team from Waterford. History should take care of the rest…

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