Under 20's look to put first loss behind them against Limerick
GAA: Fulfil Munster Under 20 Hurling Championship
By Shane Brophy
LIMERICK v TIPPERARY
TUS Gaelic Grounds
Wednesday, 29th April
Throw-in @ 7.00pm
Referee: Seaghan Walsh (Waterford)
Tipperary will be aiming to turn a semi-final berth into a final spot when they play their final game in the group stage of the Munster Under 20 Hurling Championship this evening (Wednesday).
Off the back of last week’s stunning late defeat to Clare which would have booked direct passage to the provincial final with a game to spare, Tipp’s hopes of going straight to the final are now out of their hands.
As well as needing to beat Limerick, who cannot progress to the next stage, Tipp also require Cork to beat Clare, while also bridging an eight-point score difference in the process. A win or a draw for Clare would mean Tipp play Cork in a semi-final, at home, provided they get the win over Limerick.
Speaking in the aftermath of the defeat to Clare, Tipperary manager Brendan Cummins described the ending as “a bit mad”.
“We seemed to have a lot of control before Sam (Rowan) was unbelievably unfortunate to be sent off for a second yellow card, considering the way tackles were flying around the pitch and the game was let flow which was fine,” he continued.
“We seemed to be in control and as tends to happen a couple of high balls go into the square and we were just in hard luck that a couple broke to Clare lads rather than Tipp lads.
“To be fair of a group, we'd won seven games on the bounce at under 20 level and today it just went against us.
“So, we are going to lean very much on that now for next week against Limerick and we have to reset.”
In terms of the performance up to the closing minutes, Cummins described it as “excellent”, particularly in the second half where he added: “we moved to ball really well, we were an attacking threat all the time.
“We got in round the back of them like what we wanted to do. The ball stuck inside so everything was going the way we would have expected it to go considering the quality player that we have.
“Charlie Ryan gave us great adventure and gives us great push on up to pitch and gets his shots away. The last day in Waterford we were lacking that a small bit.
“Tiernan (Ryan) moving into the half forward line did really well, especially against the wind. He started to come into the play, break the tackle and do all that kind of stuff that we know he is really good at.
The Tipperary team for the Limerick game is unchanged from the one that started against Clare but a change to the bench with captain Oisin O’Donoghue available after being rested in advance of the senior match with Waterford where he scored four points from play in an impressive performance.
“I knew a month or six weeks ago that we wouldn't have Oisin for this game,” Cummins explained of his captain not playing last week.
“The senior hurlers have to win; we develop the players to feed into the senior hurling team so there was no need for a conversation.
“Oisin understands it as well. We'll develop more young men that will be ready to play next year.”
Cummins added: “There is still a huge opportunity in this championship but we’ll have to get better because Limerick will be hurting. They haven't won a game yet, and they'll be hoping at home to put one over on us and they did it last year here.
“Then, if we are fortunate enough to get to the semi-final, whether it is home or away, we have to be way better again, and more consistent and finished it out, and that's what we plan to do.”