Stakes high for old rivals

WELCOME to the Munster championship, and welcome to Thurles, the home of Cork hurling!

It’s only a first-round match tomorrow, the season opener in Munster, but this isn’t just an ordinary Cork/Tipp match — this one is massive, and for both counties, though for very different reasons.

I’ll start with Cork. Whatever these players have achieved in the past — and I’ve been looking at their record, so much won, both individually and collectively — will be diminished if they lose tomorrow, especially to that section of the Cork public still angry over what happened earlier this year.