Thick-skinned Moore shrugs off twitter abuse

Oulart-the-Ballagh and Wexford defender Eoin Moore is unfazed by criticism of the leggings he wore in last Sunday’s AIB Leinster senior club hurling final against Mount Leinster Rangers.

Moore’s choice of attire created a stir on social media and clubmate Rory Jacob leapt to his defence with a passionate Twitter outburst on Monday evening.

Jacob wrote: “One so-called commentator questioned one of my teammates wearing of leggings in the game on Sunday. This player had knee ligament damage and was advised on medical grounds to wear the leggings.”

Moore, 23, sustained the injury four weeks before Oulart beat Shelmaliers in the Wexford SHC semi-final in early October and returned to action in the county final victory over Ferns but his left knee gave way in the final quarter of that game.

He subsequently missed Oulart’s Leinster quarter-final victory over Clara but appeared as a second half sub against Kilcormac-Killoughey, wearing the Skins.

His physio, Ruth Magee, advised him to apply light strapping to the joint and to also wear the compression Skins and Moore revealed: “I wanted anything at all to help me – I’d have worn pink ones if she asked me to. It didn’t bother me the first day that I wore the Skins, and it didn’t bother me the second day. I had the same injury twice in four weeks so it was always going to be in the back of my mind. I was willing to do anything that would put me back in the right frame of mind and after being told to wear them, I would have been stupid not to.”

Moore admitted he is aware of the negative comments on social networking sites and lamented about the game: “Nothing could describe the feeling after the match and how sickening it was. It was like 10 people had died. When I’d be down, that’s the time that something like that (criticism) would affect me, when you’re at the pin of your collar and you can’t get any lower than losing four (Leinster finals) in-a-row.”

But Moore insists that Oulart can still lift that elusive Leinster crown, adding: “You get people calling us a crowd of bottlers but it takes bottle to win five in-a-row in Wexford.”