Colm Bonnar concerned by Tipp's fade out against Waterford

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 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 ten frees in the second half which didn't help us.

"It was easy scores for than to tap over