Tipp held in Championship opener

CAMOGIE: Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Championship Group 1 Round 1

Tipperary 0-10

Clare 0-10

Report: Thomas Conway at The Ragg

MATCH DIGEST

Player of the Match: Caoimhe Maher (Tipperary)

SCORERS - Tipperary: Cáit Devane 0-5 frees; Grace O’Brien, Roisin Howard, Eimear McGrath, Caoimhe Maher, Ereena Fryday 0-1 each.

Clare: Lorna McNamara 0-5 (2 45s, 1 free); Chloe Morey 0-2 frees; Ziyan Spillane, Muireann Scanlon, Eimear Kelly 0-1 each.

Ten points won’t win you an All-Ireland title, Tipperary know this, but on Saturday evening it was enough to arrest a downward spiral which began some weeks ago when these sides met in Thurles for the first instalment of their Munster semi-final saga.

Sometimes, avoiding defeat is a higher priority than achieving victory, and although Tipperary had every opportunity to win this game and begin their championship campaign on a high, the fact that they departed The Ragg with a point in the bag will offer some consolation to a side which, just two short weeks ago, seemed entirely devoid of energy and enthusiasm. At least now, the horizon looks a little brighter.

As a game, this was a battle of tactical expressions - a veritable stalemate, played out between two teams which literally know each other inside out and have grown so accustomed to each other’s styles that they could probably mingle together to form a brilliantly cohesive combined fifteen.

On Saturday they served up a contest which was as compelling as it was intriguing, but it was also coloured by wastefulness and poor decision-making. Tipperary were laser-focused, purposeful, and largely dominant in the middle third. However, their shot execution was poor.

Clare, in contrast, struggled in two thirds of the field, but converted their chances with the sharpest of precision. This was epitomised by the likes of Ziyan Spillane, who swept into the middle channel to slot Clare’s first point in the seventh minute.

By that stage Tipp had already amassed three wides, dropped another effort short, and started to frustrate supporters. Cáit Devane had landed an early free, it must be acknowledged, but even she was guilty of profligacy. Rather than build a platform with their dominance, Tipp had begun to suck themselves of confidence. The shooting problems would escalate further midway through the second-half, at a crucial juncture in the game.

This was not a day for free-flowing forward play. The space was minimal, the pressing intense, and yet both Clodagh McIntyre and Claire Hogan seemed to adapt their games to the more compressed conditions, scuttling onto breaking balls and causing Clare trouble by sneaking through the slightest of apertures in their defensive cover. In the twelfth minute Hogan courageously put her body on the line to win a much-needed free, which Devane duly dispatched. It seemed to catapult Tipp forward. Moments later Grace O’Brien peeled through the centre and launched over from distance. Roisin Howard did something similar just minutes later. Tipp’s game was starting to flow, and Clare were starting to simmer with frustration.

However, they managed to channel it constructively, completing an elegant move in the twentieth minute, Susan Daly pinging the ball forward to Ziyan Spillane, who repelled it straight back out the field to Lorna McNamara. The talismanic centre-forward was never going to miss. She fizzed her effort straight over the crossbar, her side now trailing 0-4 to 0-2.

Devane and McNamara would trade frees before the break, but the intensity was more eye-catching than any scoring feat. Both sides were essentially neutralising one another, closing each other down with ridiculous force, limiting any space for creativity or flair.

Yet Tipp were the better side for much of the second-half. Caoimhe Maher began to excel, her link-up play proving crucial. The Burgess-Duharra midfielder shrugged off a tackle and slotted a rousing point in the 42nd minute, sending Tipp ahead by two, and while McNamara would soon pitch in with an impressive response, opportunities were falling Tipp’s way. If only they had managed to take them.

As often happens in such games, the course of events was changed by the introduction of new faces from the bench. Both Eimear McGrath and Ereena Fryday were sprung at different intervals during the second-half, and both made striking contributions to the scoreboard. Fryday’s point, in the 57th minute, was worth the admission price - a delicious sweeping effort, hit on the turn from fifty metres. It sailed between the posts to send Tipp 0-10 to 0-8 ahead and looked momentarily like it might be the insurance score. But Clare had other ideas.

Muireann Scanlon romped through the centre and edged Clare back to within one, before the Banner secured a fateful sixty metre free just as the clock ticked towards the sixty-minute mark. Chloe Morey’s capacity to land long-distance frees was known far and wide well in advance of this game, making it no surprise when the combative centre-back dispatched the equaliser.

It didn’t quite end there. There were a final few passages of play, a chaotic montage of tension and drama. Seconds after Justin Heffernan blew the final whistle, Tipp managed to rattle the Clare net, but it didn’t matter. The whistle had been blown, the dye cast, the points shared.

TEAMS – Tipperary: Áine Slattery (Shannon Rovers 8), Julieanne Bourke (Borris-Ileigh 7), Mary Ryan (Moneygall 7), Eimear Loughman (Clonoulty/Rossmore 6), Ciardha Maher (Burgess/Duharra 7), Aoife McGrath (Drom & Inch 7), Caoimhe McCarthy (Knockavilla Kickhams 6), Grace O’Brien (Nenagh Eire Og 7), Caoimhe Maher (Burgess/Duharra 8); Nicole Walsh (Borris-Ileigh 7), Roisin Howard (Cahir 7), Casey Hennessy (Boherlahan-Dualla 6), Claire Hogan (St Cillian’s 7), Cáit Devane (Clonoulty/Rossmore 7), Clodagh McIntyre (Lorrha 7).

Subs: Mairéad Eviston (Drom & Inch 7) for McCarthy (14 inj); Eimear McGrath (Drom & Inch 8) for Howard (36); Ereena Fryday (Knockavilla Kickhams 8) for Hennessy (45).

Clare: Doireann Murphy (7), Clare Grogan (7), Claire Hehir (7), Caoimhe Kelly (6), Aoife Keane (6), Chloe Morey (8), Susan Daly (7), Niamh O’Dea (7), Caoimhe Carmody (7), Lynda Daly (7), Lorna McNamara (8), Muireann Scanlon (8), Eimear Kelly (7), Áine O’Loughlin (6), Ziyan Spillane (8).

Sub: Orlaith Duggan (7) for O’Loughlin (50).

Referee: Justin Heffernan (Wexford)