Egan leads by example for NUIG

NUIG 1-11 DIT 2-5

In a game that won’t be remembered for the purity of its hurling, the Galway students were relieved to make it back to the final, but won’t need any reminding that a repeat of this display wouldn’t be good enough to give them lift their first title since 1980.

The Galway students won because they had a little bit more craft and skill in attack, where captain and Tipperary senior Dara Egan was their top scorer with five points, four from play.

DIT were game if nothing else. But they were almost totally dependant on Dublin senior Kevin O’Reilly for scores, and but for a couple of superb saves by goalkeeper Dermot Flynn, they would have suffered a far heavier defeat.

Galway coach Mattie Murphy was relieved to see his charges reach today’s decider playing poorly. “We were involved in a great semi-final last year against WIT and lost it, so I would prefer to win a bad game than lose another good one,” he said.

‘‘We knew coming down here we could take nothing for granted as they had beaten us in the league earlier in the year and had also knocked out a very useful St. Pat’s team in the quarter-finals. They certainly made us work for our victory.”

With both defences on top, scores were at a premium in the opening half.

Willie O’Dwyer opened the scoring for the Galway side with a point in the 10th minute but the hurling was extremely poor with no great fluency in the game and it took NUIG 13 minutes to open their account with a Finian Coone goal.

DIT were well in the game after Kevin O’Reilly billowed the net after Eamon Clarke and Declan O’Dwyer combined to create the chance.

At the break, NUIG only held a one point lead, 1-3 to 1-2, and it didn’t look to be good enough as the Dublin students turned to play with the elements.

However, DIT continued to struggle for scores as a resolute Galway defence defied the best they had to offer.

In contrast, the Galway students made very chance count and Dara Egan struck over three points to put his side six clear entering the closing quarter.

Credit DIT, they refused to roll over and Niall Kelly caused the Galway hearts to flutter when he touched home Sam Lehane’s cross to leave two points between the sides.

However NUIG held their nerve. With Martin Ryan and John Lee performing heroically in defence and Dara Egan using his powerful physique well up front, they clinically halted the DIT recovery with three unanswered points.

Scorers: NUIG: D. Egan 0-5 (0-1 free); F. Coone 1-0; P. O’Brien 0-2; C. Ryan, S. Molumphy, S. Glynn, D. Kenny 0-1 each.

DIT: K. O’Reilly 1-2 (0-1 free); N. Kelly 1-0; W. O’Dwyer, S. Lehane, B. McEvoy 0-1 each.

NUIG: D. Woods; R. Whyte, M. Ryan, L. Geraghty; J. Dunphy, J. Lee, E. Barrett; C. Ryan, S. Molumphy; P. O’Brien, D. Barrett, F. Coone; D. Kenny, D. Egan, S. Glynn.

Sub:V. Faherty for D. Barrett.

DIT: D. Flynn; J. Doran, A. Gaynor, P. Breen; W. Lyons, J. Walsh, T. Corcoran; D. Kennedy, J. Clarke; W. O’Dwyer, B. McEvoy, E. Connolly; K. O’Reilly, D. O’Dwyer, E. Clarke.

Subs: E. Nolan for Doran; S. Lehane for McEvoy; N. Kelly for E. Clarke; S. McCann for D. Kennedy.

Referee: D. Murphy (Wexford).