Ryan lauds classy Tipp display

MOTHER’S DAY yesterday in sunny Salthill, and many of Galway’s matrons took the opportunity to head for Pearse Stadium in hopes of seeing their hurlers bring down the All-Ireland champions, and in the process secure their place in this year’s Allianz Hurling League final.

What they witnessed, however, was a team rapidly reaching its pompspoiling their outing by beating the home side with a consummate performance.

“I’m sure Galway would be disappointed with their performance, but we’re certainly very happy with the way our lads played,” said Tipperary manager Declan Ryan. “Their workrate in the first-half set the foundation for the win, against a fairly strong breeze. We could have no complaints about the performance, everything seemed to go our way and when the chances came, our guys took them. We’re thrilled, we haven’t been scoring too many goals so we’re delighted with the tally.”

Galway disappointed? Manager John McIntyre can make the legendary Alex Ferguson hair-dryer treatment seem like a gentle breeze, when he feels the occasion warrants it. Yesterday, even he was subdued.

“It’s a sobering day for Galway hurling but there is no blame game — there is collective responsibility. We have been handed a hurling lesson, to be beaten by 18 points was not what we anticipated when we were gathering in the hotel (this morning) but Tipperary showed why they are All-Ireland champions. They were much slicker, and you could see the confidence oozing through their play. Really the damage was done in the first-half; we were playing with a very strong wind but to go in two points down, I knew we were in trouble.”

Tipperary set out their stall from the start, were two points ahead into that gale (both from young corner-forward Shane Bourke, who went on to give a man-of-the-match performance) before Galway managed their first score, a Ger Farragher point from halfway. In the 10th minute Galway even had the temerity to take the lead, late call-up Eoin Forde getting on the end of a massive Colm Callanan free to goal with Farragher adding a point within a minute to give hope to the fine home crowd.

The next 15 minutes saw Tipp at their regal best, however, and a string of five points (Patrick Maher, Lar Corbett, John O’Brien and a Pa Bourke brace) soon had them back ahead.

Another Farragher free was but a brief interruption, and when full-forward John O’Brien collected a low Pa Bourke sideline to goal from close range, it put Tipp four in front (1-7 to 1-3) by the 22nd minute.

Galway mounted a comeback before the break, points from Farragher (two frees), Forde and wing-back Adrian Cullinane, making things a bit more respectable at the interval (1-10 to 1-8). But they were also set to face that gale. As referred to by both managers, the signs were ominous, and so it proved. It was one-way traffic for the second-half, Galway blown away by the Tipperary blitzkrieg led by hat-trick hero Shane Bourke.

“Some days everything goes right and (today) was one of them for me,” said the JK Brackens star; “They didn’t go well for me last week (taken off at half-time against Cork) but the boys were encouraging during the week. Larry (Corbett) gave me a good start, threw me out a couple of handy balls early on for scores and that kind of got me into the game.”

That kind of intelligent and unselfish teamwork typified this Tipperary effort, but their overall workrate – in defence and attack – was the bedrock for the win.

And what of Galway? “We are still in the league,” said a defiant McIntyre. “If we go down to Waterford and get a result we will be in the league final. I still have faith in these Galway players; they’ll just have to learn from (today), pick themselves up and drive on. We’re not going to have any postmortem in the Galway dressing-room until next Friday night, when everybody is less raw and we can reflect on what happened, and the reasons why it happened, and try to plan our way forward. No-one saw Tipperary ending up as All-Ireland champions last year when they took a bad beating from Cork in the first round in Munster but they stood together, kept very united despite all the criticism that was thrown at them — we intend to do the same.”

Scorers for Tipperary: S Bourke 3-4; J O’Brien 1-1; L Corbett 0-4; Patrick Maher 0-4; P Bourke 0-4 (0-1f, 0-1 65); S Carey 0-2 (0-1f); B Dunne, S McGrath, G Ryan, B O’Meara, 0-1 each.

Scorers for Galway: E Forde 1-2; G Farragher 0-5 (0-4f); A Smith 0-2; A Cullinane, D Burke (free), I Tannian, A Harte, J Coen, 0-1 each.

Subs for Tipperary: B O’Meara for O’Brien (47); S Carey for Dunne (54); M Gleeson for Ryan (63); J Woodlock for Young (inj. 62); J O’Neill for Corbett (67).

Subs for Galway: N Donoghue for O’Halloran (30); A Harte for Cooney (38); J Lee for Joyce (44); J Coen for Farragher (46); D Hayes for Regan (61).

Referee: J Owens (Wexford).