Rebels need to make home advantage count

The days of ‘one strike and you’re out’ have long been confined to hurling history and yet the stakes as Cork and Tipperary meet in Sunday’s Munster Championship opener are such that the losing side in Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be one small slip away from an extended summer break.

Of the five sides that lost their opening games in last year’s Munster and Leinster round robins, only Clare managed to right the boat in time to secure passage through to the All-Ireland series. It’s no wonder the talk this last week at various media launches has been that of momentum.

Tipperary know only too well how a campaign can be stymied by an initial false step. Their six-point loss in Limerick in 2018 was followed by a pair of draws against Cork and Waterford that left them on life support long before the plug was actually pulled on their ambitions.

Even so, Cork’s need may well be greater this time. Lose against Tipp and they turn towards Limerick and the Gaelic Grounds seven days down the line needing a win against the All-Ireland and league champions to stave off the suspicion that their campaign is dangerously close to done on day one.

“Absolutely,” said Diarmuid O’Sullivan. “You’d be very naive not to think so. Cork have to go to Limerick and they have to go to Ennis so, if it it doesn’t go Cork’s way, it is a precarious road you would be on.

“That’s why you need to win your home games and hope and pray that you pick up another point.

“You want to get to a Munster final but is that really the ambition for Cork? Do they want to go three-in-arow again or do they want to wind up further down the field this time? That’s a question for later on.”