Kilkenny's quadruple has Reid in raptures

Kilkenny's Under-21s will bring a fourth All-Ireland title back to the Marble City after the completion of a hurling clean sweep from the minor through to the senior grade.

TJ Reid picked up his second All-Ireland medal in the space of a week, having had a hand in last week's senior win over Wexford and yesterday afternoon's 2-13 to 0-15 win over the Tipperary Under-21s.

The 20-year-old Reid was thrilled his side clung on to their advantage at Croke Park despite facing a Tipp onslaught in the second half.

"It was brilliant; we played so well in the first half and just in the second half we didn't get going at all. We missed a few points from play and frees. I'd say we were just lucky to win the game," Reid said.

"They came at us straight away after half-time. But we kept with them and kept going and I'm just delighted that we beat them."

Reflecting on his successes with both the senior and Under-21 panels, he added: "It's not a bad return at all, but as I said I'm just happy that I'm with a great bunch of class hurlers, the seniors and Under-21s.

"With the Under-21s it's my last year and it means a lot that I won in my last year."

And unlike last week's 23-point mauling of Waterford, this was a victory earned the hard way according to Reid.

"It's never easy and Tipperary came in there and could have got a goal handy, and beat us by a point but we kept plugging away."

And Reid's manager Michael Walsh concurred that his side had to dig deep in order to carve out the win.

"Tipperary came back strongly in the second half as we knew they would," Walsh said.

"They are a very, very good side and they have come through a tough Munster campaign. We have done very, very well ourselves to get this far.

"We knew that the second half was going to be tough. We went in six points in front at half-time and maybe we should have been a little bit more ahead.

"Our backs were to the wall for a lot of that second half, but in the end we showed great character to get the scores when we needed them. It's great testament to the lads that they did that."

Walsh reckoned that the pressure of completing the quadruple of titles for the county was something which weighed heavily on his players.

"That was a big thing which was talked about during the week. We played it down as much as we could, but the public perception out there was that this was a big day.

"Everyone had that weight on their shoulders coming in and maybe, a bit in the second half, that might have got to them.

"Tipperary hurled superbly well in the second half. We lost our shape a small bit but, as I said, in the last ten minutes when you win All-Irelands you have to get scores and we got the scores."