Kilkenny, as they do today, brought an all-singing, alldancing combination stuffed with All Ireland minor medallists. Tipp opposed them with a rather less flashy outfit that relied heavily on what one might describe as the traditional Tipperary virtues.

Kilkenny did their party tricks in the first half and led at the break. Tipperary, who despite the presence of Brendan Cummins and Tommy Dunne couldn't do party tricks, lowered the blade, discovered that Kilkenny hadn't the stomach for a fight and eventually overhauled their opponents to record a thoroughly deserved win. As a footnote, it took one or two of Kilkenny's leading lights, among them Denis Byrne, a couple of years to recover.

Some of the others never did.

Underage finals cast shadows too.

Hunger. Hunger 11 years ago, hunger seven days ago, hunger today. Man for man Kilkenny, like their '95 predecessors, are unquestionably the more gifted proposition; this Tipp team would never have put 1-24 on Galway in the All Ireland semi-final in Tullamore. But Tipperary's victory in last month's Munster final was wholly admirable in other ways. They wanted it so much more than Cork did.

The sideline's wisdom helped too, Fr Tom Fogarty and Len Gaynor producing the decisive move of the evening when switching Darragh Egan out to midfield as a ball-winner against the wind in the second half.

One can't be sure about Kilkenny's full-back line. Nor, come to that, about their fullforward line, which hasn't been contributing enough in terms of securing possession.

Still, they'll win if they really want to win.

The 'if ' is the key word in that sentence.

Verdict Kilkenny
ALL IRELAND UNDER-21 HURLING FINAL KILKENNY v TIPPERARY
Croke Park, 1.30 Referee M Haverty (Galway) Live, TG4, 1.15
KILKENNY L Tierney; K Joyce, J Tennyson, S Cummins; P Hartley, J Dalton, D Fogarty; J Fitzpatrick, M Fennelly; TJ Reid, A Murphy, P Hogan; A Healy, R Power, A McCormack
TIPPERARY G Kennedy; P Stapleton, A Byrne, C O'Brien; D Young, JB McCarthy, S Horan; J Woodlock, S Lillis; R O'Dwyer, N Teehan, D Sheppard; R Ruth, D Egan, R McLoughney