Munster final joy for Loughmore-Castleliney

Loughmore-Castleiney became the eighth Tipperary club to win the Munster Senior Club Hurling championship following their 1-6 to 0-7 win over Clare champions Tulla yesterday afternoon.

The Tulla pipe band may have entertained the large crowd at half-time of this entertaining if low-scoring encounter at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick.

However, it was the Tipperary champions who came out of this game on a sweeter note with two points to spare as they claimed the Munster title for the first time.

The weather certainly played havoc with proceedings and driving winds and heavy rain ensured testing conditions throughout, but both these sides were fully committed and produced a hard fought and entertaining encounter.

Tulla may have been the physically stronger side in this game but physicality does not always guarantee success and Loughmore-Castleiney certainly had the lasting power with points from Noel McGrath and Eddie Connolly in the closing 10 minutes seeing them to victory.

Both teams found it hard to cope with the weather in the opening stages and at the end of the first quarter just a point had been produced with Aidan Lynch opening the scoring for Tulla from a place ball.

Less than two minutes later Evan Sweeney had the ball in the back of the net for the Tipperary champions but his side still needed to improve on their accuracy with five efforts going wide of the posts.

The game continued to remain close in nature for the remainder of the first half with Conor O'Halloran and Aidan Lynch doing most of the good work for Tulla while midfielder Enda Torpey also got on the scoresheet.

Lynch's third point of the afternoon squared up the tie as the interval approached but Sweeney had the final say of the first half with a pointed free, handing Loughmore-Castleiney a 1-3 to 0-5 lead.

The second half was again a low scoring affair with both teams guilty of missed chances. Ciaran McGrath edged his side two points in front but Tulla were not far away and points from Aidan Lynch and Conor O'Halloran brought the sides level just five minutes into the half.

Suddenly scores were hard to come by and indeed Tulla were not to score for the remainder of the game despite having some good chances following some excellent team moves.

It took a further 14 minutes for either side to produce a score with Noel McGrath's 49th-minute pointed free and in a game where defences were now beginning to get on top, it looked like a draw could be on the hands.

However, Tulla were unable to find an equaliser and a Connolly point seven minutes from the end sealed the win.

Scorers:

Loughmore-Castleiney: Evan Sweeney 1-1 (1f), Ronan Stapleton, Tom King, Ciaran McGrath, Noel McGrath (1f), Eddie Connolly 0-1 each.

Tulla: Aidan Lynch 0-4 (4f), Conor O'Halloran 0-2, Enda Torpey 0-1.