Waterford seek another big scalp

Waterford's under-21 hurlers go into this evening's Munster semi-final meeting with Cork at Walsh Park with all but one of the…

Waterford's under-21 hurlers go into this evening's Munster semi-final meeting with Cork at Walsh Park with all but one of the team which narrowly defeated defending champions Tipperary last month. Andrew Kirwan keeps his place at wing back after coming on as a substitute for Alan Kirwan.

There are, however, two injury worries for manager Tony Mansfield, with centre back Victor O'Shea and corner forward Eoin McGrath struggling to be fit because of hand and leg injuries respectively. Right wing back James Murray is the only county senior player included in the team.

Opponents Cork have four senior panellists in their team: goalkeeper Bernard Rochford, centre forward Neil Ronan and the O'Connor twins, Ben and Gerry.

Limerick's Stephen Lucey and Colm Hickey, who both won Munster under-21 football medals with the county earlier this year, will miss out on their semi-final clash with Clare in Ennis. Both were unable to train in recent weeks because of injury, but fellow dual players Brian Geary and Brian Begley are in the starting line-up.

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Clare have kept faith with the team that comfortably defeated Kerry.

Cork (v Waterford): B Rochford; P Sexton, N Fitzgerald, R O'Doherty; A Fitzpatrick, M O'Callaghan, J Barrett; A O'Connor, J Olden; G O'Connor, N Ronan, E Fitzgerald; V Cusack, N McCarthy, B O'Connor.

Waterford: J O'Donnell; R Rice, J Phelan, J O'Donovan; J Murray, V O'Shea, A Kirwan; E Kelly, G Power; P Fitzgerald, S Prendergast, D Howard; J Mullane, B Wall, E McGrath.

Limerick (v Clare): T Houlihan; D Reale, E Mulcahy, P Reale; P O'Reilly, B Geary, W Walsh; M Keane, J Mescall; P O'Grady, S O'Connor, D Stapleton; D Sheehan, B Begley, S Mullane.

Clare: G O'Connell; C Harrison, K Kennedy, B McMahon; C Forde, J Redden, G Malone; S Fitzpatrick, G Quinn; R Hogan, T Griffin, T Carmodt; P MKeogh, M McMahon, C Earley.

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan is an Irish Times sports journalist writing on athletics