There was no joy for the Tipperary U20 hurlers in last night’s All-Ireland final.
The Premier suffered a 2-20 to 2-14 loss to Offaly in the decider in Nowlan Park.
Darragh McCarthy’s first half penalty kept Tipp in touch with Offaly leading 0-12 to 1-05 at the break.
The game sprung into life on 45 minutes when a speculative Shane Rigney long ball found it’s way into the net, only for Senan Butler to reply with a goal of his own less than 60 seconds later.
However, Offaly captain Dan Bourke scored Offaly’s second goal a minute later and the faithful county held out to win their first ever All-Ireland title at the grade.
Speaking after the game, Tipp manager Brendan Cummins says Offaly’s experience in finals made the difference yesterday.
“The boys are gutted awfully. They were always that little bit ahead of us as we went through the game and while the lads battled really hard, which we’ve been doing all year, we just couldn’t get our noses in front to put them under that little bit of extra pressure,” he said.
“I think the experience that they had from last year where they have 9 or 10 or so of the group had played in an all Ireland final down the home straight as well then, you know, you could see that in them.
“But, I couldn’t be any prouder of those men inside there. At the start of the year, we were no hopers. Everyone was saying that we had no chance, blah, blah, blah, stuff that you normally hear anyway. But they really battened down the hatches. And even today when he was going against us like it, they they really fought and fought and fought. And that’s the best thing. And that’s the spirit of the young men in there.”
