Galway 2-18
Clare 1-11
In a bruising encounter Galway easily cast aside the Clare challenge in front of almost 15,000 at Cusack Park, Ennis on Saturday evening. The victory provides a mouth-watering clash with Cork next weekend, as John McIntyre's men will seek revenge for defeat at the same stage of the competition last year.

Cork looked to be heading for a quiet year after carrying their placards instead of hurleys for the winter, but under the stewardship of Dennis Walsh they have regained their belief of old. They pushed Tipperary close in Munster and easily defeated Offaly by 13 points in Phase One of the qualifiers to set up the Galway clash next Saturday.

There was speculation that Liam Mellows John Lee had a broken toe going into the game but the centre back gave a man of the match display that cast aside the Clare challenge from early on. There have been times also that criticism has rightly been waved towards the Galway half forward line, but at the Clare venue they came of age and provided the base from which this victory came. In other games, much was left to Joe Canning but while the Portumna star produced many deft touches, it was the half forward line that emerged on top in the bruising opening half.

Niall Gilligan and Jonathan Clancy had sandwiched an early point from a Joe Canning '65' and it looked as if Clare were up to the challenge, However Galway with a succession of points from Aongus Callanan, Cyril Donnellan and a brace of pointed frees from Canning, raced into a 0-7 to 0-2 lead by the end of the opening quarter.

Tony Griffin hit a badly needed Clare point after brilliant work from Brendan Bulger, and almost immediately had a goal chance after Colin Ryan was brought down in the area. However Tony Carmody's effort was stopped on the line by Shane Kavanagh and when Ryan missed a scorable free, it looked as if it wasn’t going to be Clare's day.

Approaching the half hour mark it got worse for the Banner men when Damien Hayes and Callanan combined to set up Donnellan for a well-finished goal and Eoin Lynch added a point as Galway led by 1-8 to 0-3. However two late points, the first a majestic long free from Pat Vaughan and another from Carmody gave more than a glimmer of hope to the Banner men at half time with the Tribesmen's six points ahead.