Curran wary of Banner test

BEING set up again, the patsies, the potential fall guys – that’s how Paul Curran feels as Tipperary prepare to meet Clare in the Munster SHC semi-final in Limerick on Sunday.

Three weeks ago it was Cork, in the first round. Tipp had just lost a humdinger of a National League final to Kilkenny, after extra-time. The Premier were everybody’s favourites but in the end, Tipperary only barely held off a spirited Cork challenge.

“Everything was set up lovely for Cork,” says Curran.

“We were under pressure because of the league final against Kilkenny, Cork were coming in after the trouble, nothing to lose – I was really wary, knew there was going to be a kick in them. The bulk of that team has been together for years, they didn’t need a league campaign to get things together. They have quality players. With all that was said about them they were going to come out fighting – you don’t win two All-Irelands without having class. People got carried away after the league final but we were expecting that from Cork.”

Ironically, while he knew pretty much what to expect from Cork as a team, as a full-back Curran was in the unhappy position of not having a clue what to expect from his direct opponent that day. Aisake O hAilpín had spent the previous four seasons in Australia playing Aussie Rules alongside his older brother Setanta and was a newcomer to the Cork panel.

“There was so much unknown about him, and I think I got caught out myself. With the height of him, I was expecting a lot of high balls, I wasn’t expecting him to play as he did, running left and right. I got caught a bit by surprise, I had readied myself for the aerial bombardment but it never came. He’s very strong, especially in the upper body. What I found difficult was his ability to push you back, which comes from Aussie Rules, hold you off, lever off you while you’re knocked back – I never came across that before.”

Funny thing is, long before he burst on the inter-county scene, Curran knew Setanta well, and had come up against him many times in training – they were on the same side. “I played college with him with Waterford IT, we won a Fitzgibbon Cup in my last year, when I was captain. Setanta was very tall as well, but he was lanky. Aisake was bigger. He doesn’t look it, especially not with the long legs, but the upper body was hard, very strong. He’ll be a real threat in a month or so, when he has more hurling.”

It’s Clare this Sunday, and at full-forward is David Barrett, another newcomer to Munster senior championship hurling. Again, Tipp are hotly fancied, but again, reckons Curran, everything is set up for a big performance from Clare.

“They had a poor league campaign, people are writing them off, but we always find it difficult against Clare. They beat us handy in the Waterford Crystal back in January, and I know that was a long time ago, but it happened. They’re a lot better team than their league results suggest, they have big, quality forwards – not many counties have their kind of physical presence. People are writing them off, but they haven’t disappeared. It’s a derby – every match in Munster is. It’s full-blooded and whoever is most up for it will be the team to come out on top – look at Limerick and Waterford last Sunday, where Limerick were being written off. They went into that game nice and quietly, no expectation, they were the ones with all the negatives, so the pressure was on Waterford.”

Apart from all that, Paul Curran has good reason to be especially wary of Clare – he has history. “It was 2003, we had played well in another fantastic league final against Kilkenny (a classic, 5-14 to 5-13 win for the Cats), we were favourites to do well in Munster, then Clare came out and hammered us in the championship – I won’t forget that one in a hurry, it was my championship debut.”

And what of the Gaelic Grounds – so close to Clare, will that favour the Bannermen? Not necessarily, reckons the Clonmel-based national schoolteacher: “That’s no problem, it’s a fine venue, fine pitch. When we play in Thurles the opposition nearly prefer to come there – Limerick is no advantage either way. It’s on the Clare border but it’s close to north Tipp as well, a great hurling area – we’ll have a lot of support from there.”