A game to forget

IN ALL FAIRNESS

Off the high of watching the Irish rugby team produce an unforeseen performance to not only shock but humble England at Twickenham in the afternoon, the mood was well and truly burst within minutes of the start in Thurles. There was an initial high with David, in the form of Cathal O’Reilly, slaying the goliath in Gearoid Hegarty in their first battle for possession but after that good moments for Tipperary were few and far between.

Over 15,000 people made their way to Thurles on a dirty evening expecting a full-blooded contest, but it never materialised, largely due to Tipperary’s shortcomings. It was hoped that Tipp’s poor recent record against Limerick would incentivise the players into a big performance but from early on, epitomised by Jake Morris being blocked down in a very scoreable position, it had the feeling it was going to be one of those nights.

Tipperary were miles off the pace, and then when you come up against a Limerick side who were ‘on it’ in terms of their touch and movement, you get a one-sided contest as it was. The first half was something of a non-event, Tipp relying on frees to keep the scoreboard moving, 33 minutes before they scored from play. Still, as poor as they were, they created three goal chances, one of the few positives to take their ability to still open up the Limerick defence, including winning a penalty but Darragh McCarthy missing the target summed up Tipp’s half as a whole.

If Tipp were near their best, they would have stillstruggled to contain Limerick who showed that, at their very best, are still the best team in the country. Their issue in recent years is consistency, as shown last year when they beat Cork by sixteen points but ended up losing a Munster Final to them three weeks later. When they get motoring, their best is still better than everyone else’s best.

There should be no element of panic regarding Tipperary at the moment, although those supporters who tend to be alouder when things are going badly, are beginning to clear their throats just in case. The management and players deserve the benefit of the doubt for a sub-par performance we haven’t seen in almost two years.

Such is the format of the National League where each team gets a bye weekend, with Tipperary’s coming next weekend, you just don’t know what each county are doing in terms of their training load, which is all about peaking for the start of the championship on April 19th. The Tipperary team certainly looked like players that spent the week running the gallops at Thurles racecourse rather than fine-tuning their touch and game-plan at Coolmore Morris Park. So much of what we saw from them just isn’t a true reflection of what they can do.

However, what cannot be excused is the level of effort, which fell a long way short of what is required, and something Liam Cahill referenced after the game. One of the key metrics in identifying this was the free count, which remarkably was 22-6 in Tipperary’s favour. On the one hand that is a good thing that Tipp’s defending was good, but another way of looking at it is that Tipp couldn’t get close enough to Limerick players to stop them scoring 31 points from play, let alone foul them more often.

Limerick’s high free count also shows the intensity they brought right from the first minute, particularly in the middle third where they swarmed Tipp players in twos and threes. To penetrate that web, your passing needs to be slick and first touch on point, and with neither of those to their usual high standard, you get what happened with a sharp and hungry Limerick side feasting on every opportunity.

There is no need to be concerned, but if there is a repeat in the games to come against Waterford and Kilkenny, then it is time to worry but two decent performances and hopefully victories, and last Saturday will be long forgotten by the time Cork come to Thurles for the first round of the Munster Championship.

However, the manner of the defeat will have unnerved the Tipp management somewhat but it can be turned to their advantage and serve a timely jolt to every player that 2025 is in the rearview mirror, and training in the two weeks leading up to Waterford should be intense and I’d be fully expecting a tuned-in Tipperary rocking up at Walsh Park for the dress-rehearsal for the bigger game down there on April 26th.