Thunder and lightning was the worst I ever saw, says Horgan

Patrick Horgan accepts a case could have been made to take Cork and Clare players off the field during Sunday’s thunderstorm at Cusack Park. For a period in the second half of the Munster championship clash between the sides, visibility was extremely poor due to the heavy rain which was followed by thunder and lightning.

“Yeah, even a flicker in the golf and they’re gone off the course,” said Horgan. “But I suppose you can’t do that with all the people there in the ground. It’s as dangerous for them as it is for us, so you have to get on with it.

“It was the worst I ever saw. You could hardly hold your hurley up.”

Horgan said Cork now have time to work on any problems before their next game, against either Laois or Westmeath, in early July.

We’ll take what we’re given at this stage and we’ll move on. We’re qualified for the knockout stage, we’ll take that.

"We played two unbelievable games in the last few weeks, against Limerick and Waterford, and we played well in patches on Sunday.

“Ennis is a tough place to come as a lot of teams have found out over the years. It’s probably worth a few scores to Clare to play here. We have a lot to work on but we have the time now to do that, so that’s what we’ll do. We’re in there with a shout.

“We came up wanting to qualify for a Munster final, and the only way we could do that was with a result here. That didn’t happen but it turned out that we’re qualified anyway, in third.

“We saw how things went Saturday night and on Sunday — nothing is a given in this championship, every game is 50-50.”

Horgan said Cork had been focused on making the Munster final, having won the previous two provincial deciders: “We’re playing hurling all year for competitive games, and those competitive games are the ones you want to play in, like Munster finals.

“It’s unfortunate we came up short on Sunday but the key thing is that we’re still in there with a shout. We hope to have a long year yet.”