When Sunday Comes has noticed a few other patterns when these two tribes go to war.

1. IT'S GOING TO BE CLOSE

When these teams die, they die hard.

Believe it or not but when Shane Murphy's shot came back off that crossbar in the dying seconds of last month's epic Munster semi-final, it condemned Cork to their heaviest defeat in Munster in nine years.

That's right. Ever since a rampant Clare pulled away from them in the closing minutes of the 1998 Munster semi-final, Cork have never been beaten by more than a goal by Munster opposition in the championship.

They lost by three points to Waterford last month, while their four other defeats in that time . . . Limerick 2001, Waterford 2002, Waterford 2004 and Tipperary 2007 . . . have all been by a single point.

Donal Og Cusack, for one, has played 24 championship games against Munster opposition, winning 20 and losing the other four by a solitary point.

Waterford don't go softly either.

Since they too suffered at the hands of Clare in '98, they've only once been beaten by more than six points in championship, and even that day . . .last year's Munster semi-final eightpoint loss to Tipperary . . . was a twopoint game with seven minutes remaining.

And when Cork-Waterford directly clash, it's particularly close.

Since the 1998 league final, they've met a further 15 times in league or championship and only twice have they been separated by five points or more: the 1999 Munster semi-final in which there was only a point in it with 12 minutes to go, and also the 2005 All-Ireland quarter-final which was level until Brian Corcoran's famous drop-shot goal seven minutes from time.

As Table 1 shows, 10 of those 15 games have been decided by a single puck of the ball.

2. WIN THE SECOND HALF, NOT THE FIRST

Okay, so this one didn't hold true for their meeting in the Munster semifinal this year, but that was the first time in 13 Cork-Waterford encounters that the side who won the second half failed to win the game itself. In fact, up to last year's All-Ireland semi-final, the side ahead at the break ended up losing the game.

3. BOTH TEAMS WILL GET AT LEAST ONE GOAL

In their seven championship clashes since 2002, both teams have found the net at least once.

4. DON'T BE OUT-GOALED

There is no exception to this rule, at least not in championship.

In five of their last seven summer

TIGHT AT THE TOP T
able 1 Margin of wins in Cork-Waterford games from 1999, inclusive.

Cork-Waterford games since 1999 15 Games decided by six points or less 15 Games decided by four points or less 13 Games decided by three points or less 10 One-point games 4 Over those 15 games, Waterford shade it, 87, but Cork, crucially, have the edge in championship, 5-3. And when you add up all those scores . . . that's 1,050 minutes of action . . . there's only two points separating the sides, Cork with that slenderest of leads.

The wonder is they've yet to share a draw.

Today might be that day.