Tipp given no reprieve by Clare

CAMOGIE: Munster Senior Championship Semi-Final Replay

Clare 1-11

Tipperary 0-10

Report: Thomas Conway at the TUS Gaelic Grounds

MATCH DIGEST

Player of the Match: Lorna McNamara (Clare)

SCORERS – Clare: Lorna McNamara 1-4 (0-3 frees); Áine O’Loughlin, Niamh O’Dea, Ziyan Spillane 0-2 each; Muireann Scanlon 0-1.

Tipperary: Cáit Devane 0-4 (3 frees), Roisin Howard 0-2; Claire Hogan, Nicole Walsh, Jenny Grace, Eimear McGrath 0-1 each.

Another semi-final, another opportunity lost!

Clare might have deprived Tipperary of a Munster Final berth last Sunday, but surely this game could only ever rank as a dress-rehearsal, given that both sides are destined to meet in the All-Ireland Championship the weekend after next?

In the final reckoning, when all is said and done and the 2022 Munster championship is just a memory, maybe so. But this game meant as much to Tipp as any semi-final should, and in the end, they failed to deliver, backing up a disappointing display in Thurles with a similarly lacklustre performance. Tipp just haven't been at the races these past two weeks.

Clare, on the other hand, have been galloping. They rang a clarion bell in Thurles, sounding their arrival on the competitive stage, and they blew that same trumpet even louder in Limerick, showing unequivocally that they are now very much a force to be reckoned with.

It was obvious straight from the throw-in, Clare swarming Tipp with their relentless energy and inescapable scramble defence, making it virtually impossible for the likes of Clodagh McIntyre - who thrives off space and had excelled the previous week - to play her usual, mercurial game. She managed to produce one of those trademark, lung-bursting runs just after-half-time, but ultimately it amounted to nothing, her path to goal severed by a wall of Clare defenders. It served as a microcosm of the game as a whole.

And yet for all Clare’s defensive rigour, for all their deft touches and suave passing, they never accelerated too far ahead. It didn’t feel like it, but on the scoreboard at least, Tipp were always within touching distance.

Clare smacked the first three points, Áine O’Loughlin and Lorna McNamara contributing from play and placed-balls, and while Cait Devane would eventually open Tipp’s account via a free, there was a clearly identifiable pattern emerging.

Defensively Tipp were at sea, up front they looked a shadow of their usual selves. Clare were knitting moves together from the half-back line, generating enough running momentum to power forward up the field, where McNamara, O’Loughlin, and corner-forward Ziyan Spillane would invariably conjure up a score. Muireann Scanlon was causing problems too, swerving in from the right wing at every opportunity. Eimear Kelly was also a hindrance, planting herself in dangerous positions near goal.

At the other end, the situation was entirely different - most of Tipp’s sharpshooters failed to feature, save the industrious Roisin Howard, one of the few Tipp players whose game might be suited to spatial confinement. She often flourishes when the play is compressed, and in the twelfth minute she demonstrated why, bustling onto a breaking ball, and scooping over from thirty metres.

It reduced the deficit to one, Tipp trailing 0-4 to 0-3, but Clare would soon jump further ahead, Niamh O’Dea wheeling through the middle and launching a sky-scraping effort high and over the bar. O’Loughlin then swept another one over on the swivel, appearing to cement Clare’s control, but then came another twist.

At this stage Tipp required something radical - either an act of individual brilliance or a random stroke of luck. It was the latter which transpired. They were awarded a somewhat fortuitous penalty in the 22nd minute, but Devane smashed her effort at a perfect, chest-high trajectory for Doireann Murphy to bat firmly away. As if to add insult to injury, she then missed a relatively easy free. And yet, despite all that, the sides were only separated by the minimum at the interval, Clare leading 0-7 to 0-6.

The game-changing moment came in the 42nd minute. Lorna McNamara had already demonstrated that she could pick off points for fun but the half-forward also has an instinctive eye for goal. With Tipp still languishing but the game still in the balance, she swept onto the breaking sliotar, burst through the centre, and launched a bullet past Slattery, sending Clare 1-10 to 0-8 ahead and setting their course towards a Munster Final.

The Tipp response never materialised. Instead, they grew even more careless, attempting at times to replicate Clare’s swift-moving game-plan but failing to execute the decisive passes. Devane clocked in with a fiftieth minute free, but Ziyan Spillane had cancelled it out within seconds. Clare would require nothing further. Anything more which Tipp threw at them, they repelled, their half-back line of Keane, Morey and Daly dropping deep to congest the territory inside their 45.

Ultimately, the difference was just four points, but psychologically the margin felt wider. This defeat will hurt Tipp and embolden Clare.

They now have a Munster Final meeting with Cork to embrace, before another showdown against the Premier, where all will be revealed.

TEAMS – Clare: Doireann Murphy (7), Ciara Grogan (7), Clare Hehir (8), Caoimhe Kelly (7), Aoife Keane (8), Chloe Morey (8), Susan Daly (8), Caoimhe Carmody (7), Niamh O’Dea (8), Lynda Daly (7), Lorna McNamara (9), Muireann Scanlon (7), Eimear Kelly (7), Áine O’Loughlin (8), Ziyan Spillane (8).

Subs: Greta Hickey (NR) for Spillane (60+3); Alannah Ryan (NR) for Susan Daly (60+3); Susan Daly for O’Dea (60+5 inj).

Tipperary: Áine Slattery (Shannon Rovers 7), Julieanne Bourke (Borris-Ileigh J-Capt 6), Mary Ryan (Moneygall 6), Eimear Loughman (Clonoulty/Rossmore 7), Ciardha Maher (Burgess/Duharra 7), Courtney Ryan (Clonoulty/Rossmore 6), Ciara Brennan (St Cillian’s 5), Grace O’Brien (Nenagh Eire Og, J-Capt, 6), Nicole Walsh (Borris-Ileigh 6), Jenny Grace (Burgess/Duharra 6), Roisin Howard (Cahir 7), Casey Hennessy (Clonoulty/Rossmore 6), Claire Hogan (St Cillian’s 6), Cáit Devane (Clonoulty/Rossmore 7), Clodagh McIntyre (Lorrha 7).

Subs: Aoife McGrath (Drom & Inch) for Brennan (HT); Eimear McGrath (Drom & Inch 6) for Grace (38); Caoimhe McCarthy (Knockavilla Kickhams 6) for C Ryan (42); Ereena Fryday (Knockavilla Kickhams 6) for O’Brien (49); Niamh Treacy (Drom & Inch) for Ryan (55).

Referee: Diarmuid Kirwan (Cork)