Pride spurred Cats to victory

THOUGHTS of becoming the first team to retain the All-Ireland title in 10 years were far from the minds of the Kilkenny hurlers at half-time in the semi-final against Tipperary.

It was more a question of pride and survival, according to selector Noel Skehan.

"The one thing that was coming through all the time in the dressing room was that they were not after training all this time to go out on a performance like they gave in the first half. They wanted to up their performance and they did that," he said.