Skipper Curran admits Tipp had to win Munster the hard way

It wasn’t as arduous a campaign as in the famine-ending year of 1987 when they played five games before being crowned Munster champions for the first time since 1971 but it’s still been a hard road for Tipperary this year.

They came through testing games against Limerick and Cork before disposing of Waterford on Sunday to win their 40th Munster senior hurling title.

“We seem to have been getting the tough end of the draw for a few years,” says captain Paul Curran. In 2009 and again in 2011, the last two years that Tipperary won Munster titles, they again had to come the long route, quarter-final/semi-final/final, beating in turn Cork, Clare and Waterford both years.

In each of those campaigns, however, they produced at least one huge win each year. Not so in 2012.

“We’re not setting the world on fire, we just managing to get through games,” Curran admits. “Against Limerick we had a slow start but finished strongly.

“The Cork game was hard all through — there’s never much between us anyway. The Waterford game was another tough one but it was never going to be like last year (7-19 to 0-19 win for Tipp) but we got through it.”

Most observers had it down as an easy win for Tipperary, cruising through the second half to an eventual seven-point win. Wasn’t that way at all, says Curran.

“!I’d know [Waterford manager] Michael Ryan from 2009, he was over us in Mullinahone and I know his passion for the game.

“He was going to bring that passion to Waterford but they’re a very talented team anyway, a lot of very powerful players, and they were going to rebound from last year.”

The Tipp full-back line had shipped heavy criticism for their performances in earlier rounds but Curran, at full-back, and corner-backs Conor O’Brien and Michael Cahill stood firm on this occasion.

“Like the team itself we did just enough — Brendan [Cummins, keeper) made a few big saves at vital times.

“Michael Cahill went up the field and got a point — his first point for Tipperary. Conor O’Brien had scored in the Limerick game as well so the pressure is on me now the next day to score!”