Waterford senior hurling manager Peter Queally says his side are still right in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship despite a home defeat at the hands of Limerick on Saturday night.

The visitors emphasized exactly why they are the six-in-a-row provincial kingpins with a pillar-to-post victory – winning out by 0-28 to 0-22 despite the Deise’s best efforts.

It was a six day turnaround for Waterford following on from their victory against All-Ireland champions Clare, and Queally admits the gap between the games probably wasn’t sufficient.

“It was tough,” said Queally. “We try and build ourselves up and get into our heads that six days is nothing. We did very little physically, but mentally and emotionally it can be hard to get down and get back up again in such a short space of time. We’ve been building for probably seven months for the Clare game and six days then to get ready for Limerick. And it’s Limerick, remember. They’re six-in-a-row Munster champions and they showed why. They’re a big, strong, physical hurling team and it showed that they’re probably, again, the team to beat this year.”

“We love our home games here in Walsh Park and to actually play the two of them only six days apart – if our second game was an away venue and we had another couple of weeks maybe to get ready for our next home game, to put the two home games six days apart is probably harsh on us. It makes it a little bit uneven in that.”

The trip to Thurles to take on Tipperary on Sunday May 18th is now an ample opportunity for Waterford to finally secure their passage out of the province. Queally sounded a defiant note after the Limerick defeat – to remind everyone that Waterford will play an integral role in this provincial championship right until the end.

“We’re not out of the Championship by no means. We’re in a decent position. We’d love to have four out of four points. No team has. Two teams have three out of four. We have two out of four and two have one out of four. We’re sitting in third place. We have a massive game. We have two weeks now to get ready.”

“It’s a ground that we’ve historically loved playing in – and we’ll face a hungry and eager Tipperary team – it won’t be easy, but it’s a challenge that we’ll relish.”

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