Lyons lauds character and courage of players

FIVE months on after meeting in what Cyril Lyons recalls as "a poor League match" in Ennis, Clare and Waterford will be fighting it out for a place in the Guinness All-Ireland hurling final in Croke Park in two weeks' time.

Whatever about the actual pairing itself, it’s doubtful if Lyons or Justin McCarthy could have anticipated such a clash in the lead-up to the Munster championship.

Waterford would not have been rated that highly prior to Clare taking on Tipperary and losing by just two points. However, everything changed when they went on to win the Munster title after a lapse of 39 years. Clare, meanwhile, made steady progress through the qualifier system. The win over Dublin marked Lyons’ first since he took over as manager, but you won’t find him being boastful about the team’s progress to-date. Admirers would say that his quiet, tactful approach has helped bring the best out the players.

“It was a crucial game for us,” he said about the team’s dramatic win over Galway on Sunday. “We needed a severe test to find out how good we were, to see were we up to it. Before the Wexford game I said that if we were to beat them I wanted to play the winners of Galway and Cork. With due respect to Antrim - while they played very well against Tipperary - if we were drawn against them and we were in an All-Ireland semi-final we still wouldn’t know where we were at.

“Our hurling yesterday wasn’t brilliant, but our character and courage, and the effort we showed were what got us there. They are vital ingredients in any team. We’d have to say we were well satisfied with the game.”

He described the performance as a vindication of all the work that was done - not just by the players, but the backroom people. “The medical people were super. We had four guys who were not able to train last week and the likes of Colm Flynn, Joanne Frost and Pádraig Quinn (the team doctor) played major roles,” he added.

Naturally, he was delighted with the display of Colin Lynch, a player who expresses himself entirely on the field and generally keeps to himself away from the team. “Colin is a tremendous guy and he’s getting better as the year goes on. He was worthy of the winning point. The irony of the whole thing is that we played Galway a month ago inside in Cusack Park and he hit five bad wides. He just couldn’t score that evening.

“Waterford is going to be a huge game, so different from the others. Look at their record; they beat Cork and they beat Tipperary. They were unbelievable in the Munster final and played exceptional hurling. They won by eight points and it should be been higher. We played Tipperary over the last two years and we didn’t win either of the matches.

“That’s a measure of the performance of Waterford and the tremendous players they have. They’ll be coming in with huge self-belief and confidence and massive support on Sunday week. So, it’s going to be another huge test for us.”

Justin McCarthy, meanwhile, says that after being in the dark for the last few weeks, it’s good to know who will be providing the opposition on August 11. “I thought Clare played very well in the second half. To give Galway a seven points lead and to come back and beat them took some going. It just goes to show they are still a very good team and their experienced players pulled them through in the end. I think Galway didn’t have that kind of players when it came down to it.

“I could see a lot of the old Clare flair back again, fancying that they could win the game. They were quite good.” Impressed by the manner in which Clare limited the flow of quality possession to the Galway forwards, McCarthy feels that overcoming this will be a big challenge for his team. “Galway had shown a bit of form recently in matches and I had seen them play. They were quite impressive. You’d have thought they would be able to open up the whole Clare midfield and defence, but they didn’t do that.

“That’s one of the things we will have to contend with. That’s where experience comes in again. We will be playing a very experienced team in Croke Park. It’s as simple as that. There are no ifs or buts about it!

“They have a lot of players who have been there before and that's the challenge we are going to have to confront.’’ In preparation for the game, Waterford had a training session in Croke Park recently. “It’s a different stadium to what it was in my time,” he joked. “But you still have to play on the green patch of ground, no matter what's around it!''