Tipperary withstood a spirited Limerick second half fightback to keep their Munster under 20 hurling ambitions alive after a pulsating two point victory over Limerick in Semple Stadium last evening.
A strong first half showing saw Tipp take a ten point lead into half time but Limerick mounted a strong second half showing to narrow the gap to the minimum before a late Jack Leamy placed ball eased Tipperary to a two point win on a score line of Tipperary 1-15 Limerick 0-16.
After the game manager Brendan Cummins explained that his players knew that last night represented knock out hurling despite a round left to play in the round robin series:
“We said before the match there is no tomorrow for the lads if we lost tonight the lads were never again going to be playing U20 hurling at a seriously competitive level, because the match next week against Waterford would have been a dead rubber so it was absolutely all on the line tonight. Draw no good, but if you draw you would have had to beat Waterford by a cricket score which is never ever going to happen, so we jumped the fence this time, but like I said it is over now and we have to get lads fixed up during the week and ready to go again.”
Despite playing with the wind in the second half, Tipperary struggled to keep possession at times, a fact not lost on Tipp manager Brendan Cummins:
“the breeze whatever breeze was there and we did feel that playing against the wind is always that little bit easier because you can stay very compacted at the back and the second half then Limerick played further far back towards their goals and then they started winning the breaks and started moving it the pitch and got momentum. But to break it every so often, Seanie Keneally was able to do that… so little flashes like that kept us in the game and that was vital.”
