Galway’s man mountains in sight of summit

By 12.30 car after car bearing purple and gold flags had already been inserted into the nooks and crannies along Richmond Road, the tinfoil was being unwrapped from the sandwiches and the tops were coming off the bottles. A tailgate party, Wexican-style.

“God, this is very early for cars to be along here,” a local resident muttered. Very early in the normal course of events, perhaps, but this wasn’t the normal course of events. Wexford were in a Leinster final for the first time in nine years and the boys were back in town, so many of them as to set a new attendance record for the fixture.

There would be just one problem. Galway were in town too, and Galway are hardy and handy and experienced in a way that Wexford are not.