Michael Mulvihill's Saturday Hurling betting preview featuring Cork v Waterford

Cork v Waterford
Pairc Ui Chaoimh
Sky Sports Arena, 7pm Saturday

This game was first priced on May 9 by Paddy Power and Betfair with Cork starting as 8-15 favorites and Waterford at 15-8.

Cork are now as low as 1-14 with the same two firms and the Deise now out to an unbelievable 9-1. The sad part, for Waterford at least, is that these prices probably truly reflect how low Waterford hurling has sunk in recent weeks and redemption looks a long way away.

Waterford were truly dismal against Limerick last week, scoring just five points from play and falling to a 20-point defeat.

Limerick were good, but they were almost certainly flattered by how poor Waterford were.

Waterford seemed to have no gameplan and were not nearly hard enough working for a team about to get dumped out of the championship.

The removal of Austin Gleeson and Maurice Shanahan ended any chance they had of progressing and the petulant red card for a senior player such as Pauric Mahony was disappointing to see.

Cork have done little wrong since their opening round loss to Tipperary and were very impressive against Limerick last month.

In fact, they had every chance to pull further away from Limerick, with Patrick Horgan uncharacteristically missing some frees. They’re far from the finished article yet though.

Limerick looked lacklustre against them and it remains to be seen how effective the Cork defence will be against a forward line in their pomp, as they struggled against Tipperary in round one. This won’t matter against Waterford.

Facing into Clare next weekend, Cork will be keen to put up a big score, like Limerick did, as there’s every chance scoring difference will come into play at the end of this championship. Expect them to go to town at home in the park.

Recommendations
Cork -8
2pts 10-11 Hills
Cork Over 28.5pts
1pt 4-5, Paddy Power Betfair

Wexford v Carlow
Innovate Wexford Park, 7pm Saturday

Carlow have done their best in their first season in the Leinster Championship and although they will drop down to the Joe McDonagh after this, they will do so a better team having learned from playing against the top opposition.

Like the Munster Championship, Leinster is also likely to have an extremely tight finish and with Dublin putting up a big score last weekend, Wexford will be keen to do the same.

They looked dead and buried against Galway two weeks ago but fought back admirably to take a share of the spoils, leaving them on two points after two played. With Kilkenny on the horizon, they’re expected to win comfortably here and put themselves in a good position heading into the final round.

Recommendation
Wexford -12
2pts 10-11 general

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