Now, this was more like it. After serving up one of the direst games in recent championship history, Limerick and Waterford offered up an enjoyable evening's hurling here, with Waterford in the end deservedly qualifying for a fifth Munster final in eight years.

For all the talk about Davy and Justin in the lead up, the real story was John Mullane. He was simply unstoppable again yesterday, underlining his own successful transition from merely being one of the country's most dangerous and exciting forwards to one of its most consistent, along with the likes of Shefflin, Brennan, Kelly and O'Connor. Yesterday Damien Reale took him from the off and yet it didn't matter; after 20 minutes Mullane was on three points, forcing McCarthy to have to move Mark O'Riordan onto him. That too didn't work; Mullane would score another three points and win a series of frees on him before substitute Tomas Condon was assigned the task in the closing minutes. All he matched Mullane on was the number of off-the-ball shoulders he hit Mullane with; with the game on the line Mullane won a free off him too, and just in case Michael Duignan was watching, hollered and pumped fist into the air again to mark the fact.

Both teams ran out 20 minutes before the game to what must surely have been the smallest crowd to attend a Munster championship game since Kerry quit the scene. Clearly the sheer awfulness of last Sunday's contest carried greater weight with the public than the fact that these are the last two teams to compete in an All Ireland final not called Kilkenny. Within minutes though the old stadium was reverberating with the roars of any other Munster championship day, keeping the crowd of 15,374 entertained from the off.

Just like last week Waterford started the more sprightly, but this time Eoin Kelly was far more involved. Fitzgerald had given him a freer role, floating between the left wing and left corner forward spot and it worked. Within the first 10 minutes Kelly had scored three points, while he was creating oceans of space inside for Mullane and Gary Hurney, both of whom had goal chances foiled by Brian Murray.

Limerick though this time were a lot quicker waking out of their slumber than last week and were soon back within breathing distance. Unlike last week they were finding it much easier to pick off their scores. While the Waterford half-back line, particularly Tony Browne, were doing well in the air, on the ground the Limerick half-forward line trio of Paul Browne, James O'Brian and Niall Moran were scooping up loose ball and dispatching it over the bar. By the 28th minute Moran had joined Ryan with two points from play to move Limerick onto level terms, 0-8 apiece.

But they were getting nothing from their inside forward line who weren't helped by some wayward frees floating over the heads and wide in the closing 10 minutes of that first half. In contrast, Kelly converted a couple of long-range frees to give Waterford a two-point half-time advantage, 0-10 to 0-8.

Upon the restart, Andrew O'Shaughnessy came more into the game, winning a couple of frees which he'd slot over himself but at the other end Mullane was simply on fire. He was helped too by the ball that was being played into him, most notably by Shane O'Sullivan who finally became a certified championship player yesterday.

Limerick would hang in there, and with 10 minutes to go were only down by two, 0-18 to 0-16, but in that final stretch the old legs of the likes of Geary, Foley and Moran started to show, while McCarthy made his second bizarre substitution of the night, replacing a now more confident O'Shaughnessy with Donie Ryan, having earlier subbed off Donal O'Grady the instant he'd scored a point. That, though, is to be pendantic. Waterford simply had the better set of hurlers and scorers, and in the closing minutes could afford to sub off the ageless Browne while the likes of Kelly and Seamus Prendergast reeled off some Champagne scores from out the field to seal the win.

WATERFORD: C Hennessy; E Murphy, D Prendergast, N Connors; R Foley, M Walsh, T Browne; K Moran, S O'Sullivan (0-1); J Nagle, S Molumphy (0-1), S Prendergast (0-4); J Mullane (0-6), G Hurney, E Kelly (0-12, nine frees, one '65) Subs D Shanahan for Molumphy, half-time; E McGrath for Nagle, 45 mins; A Kearney for Foley, 53 mins; J Kennedy (0-1) for Moran, 64 mins; J Murray for Browne (69 mins)

LIMERICK B Murray; M O'Riordan, S Lucey, D Reale; D Moloney, B Geary, M Foley; D O'Grady (0-1), S Hickey (0-2); P Browne (0-1), N Moran (0-5, two frees); J Ryan (0-2); A O'Shaughnessy (0-5, all frees), O Moran, D Breen (0-1) Subs E Foley for O'Grady, 47 mins; G Mulcahy for M Foley, 57 mins; T Condon for O'Riordan, 60 mins; D Ryan for O'Shaughnessy, 65 mins

Referee B Gavin (Offaly)