Limerick suffer as UCC give Sigerson warning

UCC sent out a chilling warning ahead of the defence of their Sigerson Cup title at this end of this month with an emphatic victory over Limerick in Rathkeale’s Mick Neville Park.

The Cork students had a Marc Collins 25th minute goal to thank for a 1-5 to 0-5 lead.

But on the turnover, the UCC men took control and five successive points in the opening eight minutes after the restart laid the foundations for an easy victory.

“I thought we started brightly and were sharp but the goal knocked the stuffing out of us,” said a disappointed Limerick manager Maurice Horan.

“It is difficult when you are missing so many experienced players when the floodgates opened in the second half and it was one-way traffic in the end.

They are getting ready for their championship competition and are looking towards the Sigerson in a couple of weeks and we have to go back to training on Tuesday and try and get ready for our league opener in three weeks.

Playing with the wind in the second half, UCC outscored Limerick 0-14 to 0-5 in the second period to book a McGrath Cup semi-final place against Tipperary.

In all 10 different players found the target for the Cork side with Paul Geaney helping himself to four points and Mark Reen kicking three in the second period. A largely experimental Limerick relied heavily on Ger Collins and free-taker Mike Quilligan for scores but they never troubled the college side, who led from start to finish with Kevin O’Driscoll and Geaney getting them off the mark with scores inside the opening two minutes.

Indeed the winning margin could have been greater but for three superb saves from Limerick’s Brian Scanlon.

Scorers for UCC: M Collins 1-3 (1free), P Geaney 0-4, M Reen 0-3, B Coughlan, B O’Driscoll (1free) 0-2 each, K O’Driscoll, JB Spillane, D Nation, J O’Sullivan, A Greaney 0-1 each.

Scorers for Limerick: G Collins (1free), M Quilligan (3frees) 0-4 each, J Riordan, G O’Connell 0-1 each.

UCC: D Farry (Cork), J O’Sullivan (Cork), E O’Sullivan (Cork), S Enright (Kerry), P Crowley (Kerry), N Daly (Roscommon), B Daly (Cork); K O’Driscoll (Cork), D Nation (Cork); M Reen (Kerry), M Collins (Cork), JB Spillane (Kerry); B O’Driscoll (Cork), B Coughlan (Cork). P Geaney (Kerry).

Subs: A Greaney (Kerry) for Crowley (52), J O’Sullivan (Kerry) for Nation (52), S Beston (Cork for Spillane (59), L Jennings (Cork) for O’Sullivan (59), D O’Sullivan (Kerry) for Collins).

LIMERICK: B Scanlon; M McCorkack, J McCarthy, L O’Dwyer; E Barry, J Riordan, P Ranahan; E Joy, P Kinnerk; D Treacy, M Quilligan, P Maloney; G Collins, G O’Connell, D Kelly.

Subs: S Buckley for Kinnerk (28), J Cooke for Kelly (40), J O’Meara for Maloney (44), C Coady for McCormack (48), S Nix for Buckley (58).

Referee: D O’Mahony (Tipperary).