National Hurling League Division One/ Clare 1-16 Tipperary 0-15: Life on the road is suiting Anthony Daly's Clare team. Like their fierce Munster rivals of old, they used the mid-league break to train on the warm coasts of mainland Europe and returned with a healthy glow but more significantly, this visit to Thurles marks their third successive victory in opposition counties.

After coming to life in Kilkenny and Waterford, Clare continued to travel in the right direction with a muscular and assured performance in the famous Tipperary hurling home.

The home team were a disappointment for the first 50 minutes, partly attributable to the fact they only arrived home from their own Easter training camp in the Algarve at midnight on Friday. The tans were vivid, the hurling less so but after trailing by nine points after 49 minutes, they sharpened up enough to ruffle Clare a little in the last 10 minutes.

"Well, its still only April," Daly noted in the dark corridor afterwards. "You wouldn't read too much into it. I'd say the Tipp boys were exhausted after only getting off the plane there. The week away is really great but it is tiring."

Much was familiar about Clare yesterday. Colin Lynch looked lean and ravenous for action all through. Seánie McMahon sent five points booming over Brendan Cummins's crossbar from deep downfield and centred a terrific back line, with Gerry Quinn elbow deep in hard work and Alan Markham irrepressible on the right wing.

Davy Fitzgerald repelled one of two audacious attempts on goal from Eoin Kelly frees and also got his body behind Tommy Dunne's 47th-minute snapped shot. Niall Gilligan broke about even in his tussle with Philip Maher but Andy Quinn stepped up to nail the first-half goal that broke the game open.

The Clare full-back line were in fine form, with Gerry O'Grady picking up Kelly and the Lohan brothers hoovering up everything else.

Tipperary drew first blood with an Eoin Kelly free but quickly fell into a struggling, up-against-it pattern thereafter. Although Cummins got great depth on his puck-outs, the home half-forward line struggled to hold possession and Clare profited from long, direct ball towards Gilligan and company.

Clare got their only goal from a low, pacy ball down the left wing towards Quinn, who turned beautifully and caused Paul Curran to slip. Despite Cummins racing out, Quinn hit the net with a deft strike on 15 minutes.

On the half hour, another simple Clare point came from the same basic ploy: Tipperary's Mark O'Leary ran into a crowd of Clare defenders, the ball was driven downfield and Tony Carmody collected to point.

Tipperary trailed 0-6 to 1-8 at the break but it should have been closer. They struck six wides but there was also the fact of Kelly being tempted into firing at the crowded Clare goal with 20-metre frees. The first came on 23 minutes, driven high and glancing off Fitzgerald, the second a low blur met by Brian O'Connell and cleared by Frank Lohan.

When Lynch bravely slung his body to block down a Tipperary strike early in the second half, it was apparent Clare were in a mood to press home their advantage. McMahon, Gilligan and Andy Quinn all pointed in the first seven minutes of play.

In the same period, Tipperary suffered four poor wides and a wan strike for goal from Michael Webster. The tall young forward did provide a smart flick-on for Tommy Dunne's goal shot and also had the unusual distinction of seeing both Lohans off the field. Brian Lohan was carded after O'Brien drew crashing contact from him after 57 minutes but before Webster could begin to enjoy life without the famous red helmet haunting his vision, he got entangled with Frank and was carded along with the other half of the Newmarket firm.

Those incidents occurred smack in the middle of Tipperary's desperately late attempt at a coup. Tommy Dunne added some invention from the wing and Paul Kelly found his stride as Tipp rattled five points in succession. O'Brien and John Devane were the most conspicuous Tipperary forwards but substitute Darragh Egan nipped in front of replacement Brian Quinn to land a great score on 66 minutes.

A Paul Kelly point left Quinn's goal between the counties. Clare remained steady and Carmody banged over the final point of the game to keep them on course.

"I'm really pleased with the effort we put in over those last 20 minutes because it would have been easy to die out there when we were 10 points down," said Tipperary coach Ken Hogan.

CLARE: D Fitzgerald; F Lohan, B Lohan, G O'Grady; A Markham, S McMahon (0-5, two frees, three 65s), G Quinn; B O'Connell, C Lynch (0-1); T Carmody (0-2), D McMahon, B Nugent; A Quinn (1-2), N Gilligan (0-5, two frees), C Plunkett (0-1). Subs: D O'Connell for Nugent (30 mins), B Quinn for B Lohan (yellow card, 57 mins), B Lynch for F Lohan (yellow card, 63 mins), D Clancy for D O'Connell (69 mins).

TIPPERARY: B Cummins; P Curran, P Maher, H Maloney; D Fanning, D Kennedy, E Corcoran; C O'Mahoney, P Kelly (0-2); M O'Leary (0-1), J Devane (0-3), B Dunne; E Kelly (0-5, four frees), M Webster; P O'Brien (0-3). Subs: D Fitzgerald for Kennedy (22 mins, inj), T Dunne for O'Leary (43 mins), D Egan (0-1) for B Dunne (53 mins), E Sweeney for Webster (yellow card, 63 mins).

YELLOW CARDS: Clare: B Lohan (57 mins), F Lohan (63 mins). Tipperary: M Webster (63 mins)

Referee: D Kirwan (Cork).