Interprovincial Hurling Championship semi-final:
Munster 3-21 Ulster 0-15
ULSTER performed well enough in the first-half of Sunday's interprovinical hurling semi-final at Thurles, with Antrim's Ciaran Clarke and Armagh's Conor Corvan both prominent.
But they were blown away in the second-half by Munster, finding themselves outgunned by 0-8 to 2-11 after the break. At half-time, Ulster were six points behind, 0-7 to 1-10, but left for home on the wrong end of a 15-point defeat.
Ulster manager Terence McNaughton was visibly deflated at the final whistle, before facing into a five-and-a-half hour trip home: "If you asked the players, they feel there's life in it [the competition], but obviously the crowd doesn't - and the fact that it's on before Christmas, counties are only going back and some of them not even back," he said.
MATCH STATS
Munster: A Nash (Cork); B Coughlan (Waterford), J Barry (Tipperary), N Connors (Waterford); D Byrnes (Limerick) (0-1), C Dillon (Clare), S Fives (Waterford); M Breen (Tipperary) (1-1), J Barron (Waterford); S Dowling (Limerick) (0-1), Shane Bennett (Waterford) (0-1), D McCormack (Tipperary) (0-1); J O'Dwyer (Tipperary) (0-2), S Callanan (Tipperary) (1-7, 0-6f), D Reidy (Clare) (0-1); Subs: A Shanagher (Clare) for Dowling (25), B Nash (Limerick) (0-4) for Shane Bennett (25), Tom Murnane (Kerry) (0-1) for Barron (h.t.), P Maher (Tipperary) (0-1) for Fives (h.t.), Stephen Bennett (Waterford) (1-0) for McCormack (h.t.), Dowling for O'Dwyer (45), Shane Bennett (0-1) for Reidy (45), McCormack for Breen (51), Fives for Coughlan (55), Barron for Dillon (55).
Ulster: S Keith (Down); S McCrory (Antrim), P Burke (Antrim), J McManus (Down); N McAuley (Antrim), C Woods (Down) (0-1), C Taggart (Down); E Campbell (Antrim), Ciaran Johnston (Antrim); C Corvan (Armagh) (0-3) N McKenna (Antrim) (0-1), D Toner (Down); Conor Johnston (Antrim), J Dillon (Antrim), C Clarke (Antrim) (0-7, 6f); Subs: C O'Prey (Down) (0-2, 1f) for Ciaran Johnston (26), D Cullen (Donegal) (0-1) for Toner (33), J Corvan (Armagh) for Taggart (46), A Grant (Derry) for C Corvan (47), P Henry (Derry) for Conor Johnston (49), C O'Connell (Antrim) for Keith (52), C Devlin (Armagh) for Dillon (52), S Renaghan (Armagh) for Cullen (55), Ciaran Johnston for J McManus (56).
Referee: S Cleere (Kilkenny).
