Clare standing between Tipp and a three-in-a-row

TIPPERARY v CLARE

TUS Gaelic Grounds, Limerick

Wednesday, 13th May

Throw-in @ 7.35pm (E.T.)

Referee: Nicky O’Toole (Waterford)

Tipperary and Clare’s respective under 20 teams will look to set the tone for their senior counterparts on Saturday when they meet in the Munster Final for the second year in a row this evening (Wednesday).

This is the fourth time in five years the counties have met in a provincial underage final with Tipperary aiming to continue their winning run at minor level in 2022 and 2024 before edging the Banner in the under 20 decider twelve months ago.

Clare were successful at minor level in 2023 when they went onto win the All-Ireland title and are aiming to follow the path of Tipperary who turned a minor All-Ireland in 2022 into an under 20 All-Ireland three years later.

The Banner come into this final in good shape with a hugely impressive semi-final win away to Cork last week, overturning a five point loss from their round-robin clash the previous week to win the knockout clash by six points with a dominant closing quarter performance.

This is off the back of their late late show against Tipperary with their 2-1 salvo in injury time snatching victory at FBD Semple Stadium which sets up the rematch ideally.

While that game was just three weeks ago, Clare have improved since and are boosted by the return of centre-back James Hegarty from injury after only making his return from long term injury as a sub in the final game of the round-robin stage. However, it has been offset by an injury to Jamie Moylan who is a doubt for the final.

With no team confirmed at the time of writing, much of the focus in terms of Tipperary will be over the availability of captain Oisin O’Donoghue and Stefan Tobin. Both will be expected to feature for the seniors against Clare three days later, O’Donoghue very likely to start.

It is a similar scenario that faced under 20 boss Brendan Cummins and the senior management last year involving Darragh McCarthy and Sam O’Farrell. Coming off a suspension, McCarthy started the final having not played in three and a half weeks while O’Farrell started from the bench having played senior four days before with another game four days later.

It is slightly different on this occasion with O’Donoghue and Tobin coming in fresh having played no game for over a fortnight which opens the possibility of playing to a larger extent.

O’Donoghue didn’t play in the round-robin clash last month which would be a new wrinkle for Tipp to throw at Clare while the skipper is chasing a third Munster under 20 medal, aiming to match that of his Cashel King Cormacs clubmate Colm Bonnar who won three in a row at under 21 level from 1983 to 1985, which was the last time Tipp did a three-peat, while they also win four in a row from 1978 to 1981.

The rest of the squad also won’t lack for motivation for another crack at Clare after throwing away a match-winning lead of seven points with four minutes of normal time remaining but they wouldn’t score again in the remaining seven minutes of match time, sitting back on their lead and invited Clare onto them to their detriment.

We would also be expecting a much better contest this time round as the group game was littered with mistakes and poor shooting from both sides.

Tipperary have a strong goalkeeper in Paddy McCormack who made two big saves against the Banner in their previous encounter but won’t want to be as busy again.

Tomas O’Connor was superb at full forward for Clare in the semi-final win and he will likely take a lot of time for the Tipp management to plan for as Evan Morris had to be switched off him in their group meeting with Adam Ryan moved from wing to full back to curb his influence. It will be interesting if they go that way from the start. They could have that as a fall-back option as Ryan is a huge presence in the half-back line along with Euan Murray and Shane Cleary.

Charlie Ryan has been a huge addition for Tipp to the middle of the field with his energy to compliment the guile of Sam Rowan and the class of Tiernan Ryan who will drop deep from centre forward.

David Costigan and Stefan Tobin should man the wings with Cormac Fitzpatrick and vice-captain Jamie Ormond inside, possibly with O’Donoghue, if selected to start.

If he doesn’t, Robbie Ryan is an injury doubt following a hamstring injury sustained in the win over Limerick with Eoghan Doughan and Jack Hayes the likely replacements if he doesn’t.

Since the format of the Munster Under 20 Championship was introduced, the team that finished top of the round-robin section has gone onto win the final so history is in Tipp’s favour but they have to get the better of a Clare side that handed them their only defeat so far.

From the teams that played in the decider twelve months ago, Tipperary have five starting survivors in Cathal O’Reilly, Adam Ryan, David Ryan (Arravale Rovers 6), David Costigan and Oisin O’Donoghue who was man of the match that evening, with Jamie Ormond and Cormac Fitzpatrick coming off the bench.

Clare have nine players playing in their second Munster under 20 final including goalkeeper Mark Sheedy, Eoghan Gunning; Jamie Moylan, James Hegarty, Daniel Costelloe, Ronan Kilroy, Fred Hegarty; Sean Boyce, and Michael Collins while Harry Doherty and Robert Loftus came off the bench.