Source: RTE Sport

Tipperary hurling manager Colm Bonnar admitted his side simply "had no response" to the second-half surge at Walsh Park that yielded Waterford maximum points in their Allianz HL Division 1B encounter.

In the end, the hosts ran out ten-point winners to more or less confirm their place in the semi-finals. As for the Premier, it's a second consecutive loss and likely ends their interest in going any further in the league.

Bonnar's men will complete their programme against Laois in a fortnight, before thoughts will be firmly fixed on another date away to Waterford in their Munster championship opener on 17 April.

Picking out the positives from today's loss to their provincial rivals, Bonnar did highlight what his team served up at the start of each half.

He told RTÉ's Sunday Sport: "I thought we were exceptional for the opening 15 minutes. We were running at them and went into a nine points to three lead. We also had a couple of goal chances and when you're on top like that you really need to raise a green flag or two. When that didn't happen Waterford came back at us and scored a goal. It was tit for tat then for the rest of the first half.

"We started the second half brightly, got the first couple of scores, drew level and then went a point up. It looked like that was going to be the nature of the game but Waterford slowly came back into it."

The game then turned emphatically in Waterford's favour, with Bonnar adding: "The last 15 minutes was very hard for us.

"To be fair to Waterford they have a very good system; their ability to pick ball and ruck and then come out at pace was there to see. They caused us a lot of trouble and we gave away 10 frees in the second half, which didn't help us.

"It was easy scores for them to tap over and push them further ahead. In the end we just had no response. That's something we're going to have to look back on. Hurling can't finish until the final whistle blows and I've seen teams turn around four, five, six, seven-point leads with a few minutes to go. We weren't able to do that today."

The Premier boss has used the league to try out new players, but is working towards getting a settled squad in advance of the championship.

"We made eight changes after the Kilkenny victory and had seven changes coming into the game today. We wanted to get players onto the field and see them in this environment and to see what they had. The job now is to settle on a panel for the championship but I'm confident we will do the work required to have us in good shape for when we play Waterford again.

Bonnar also had news on Seamus Callanan, who is expected to be out for a number of weeks after he sustained a broken bone in his hand at training on Friday evening.

"He is going to meet the surgeon on Monday, who will give us the extent of the injury," Bonnar revealed.

"His thumb will be immobilised for four to six weeks and he will need rehab after that. It's disappointing because we got him onto the field against Dublin and he got a good run out. He had no reaction after the game. It's another setback. We have a strong panel but hopefully he'll be around for a good part of the championship."

Waterford boss Liam Cahill was pleased with his side's performance but felt that "there are still areas" that require improvement.

"There were passages of play in both halves that I would be concerned about but it's two points on the board and I'm looking forward to Kilkenny in two weeks' time."

Six weeks out from their championship bow against today's rivals, Cahill, not surprisingly, is predicting a much different contest on Easter Sunday.

"There will be a different atmosphere, different intensity, it will be a full house. What happened today will be irrelevant. It's the fourth round of the National Hurling league today and nobody will be getting excited."