Ryan delight as Rebels take important win over Premier hurlers in Munster U-20 decider
CORK Under-20 hurling manager Pat Ryan was impressed with the collective effort as the Rebels took the Munster title and book their place in the All-Ireland final with victory over Tipperary at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Wednesday.
While Cork had led by 0-13 to 0-11 as the second-half water-break approached, points just before and just after the stoppage from Tipperary’s Andrew Ormond tied matters for the first time since the opening half. It asked a question of Cork but they had the lead again thanks to a superb point from Shane Barrett, his fifth, and Daire Connery’s free from distance restored the two-point advantage.
In the 58th minute, they were five clear as a low ball across goal from sub Seán Twomey was picked up by another replacement, Brian O’Sullivan, and though his shot was saved by Aaron Browne, a third sub, Jack Cahalane, was on hand to fire the rebound to the net.
When Cahalane landed a free in injury time, it was 1-16 to 0-13, the biggest lead of the game up to that stage but Tipp, the defending Munster and All-Ireland champions, didn’t give up easily. After Ormond got his third point of the night, he struck for a goal in the 63rd minute following Eoin Davis’s stop to deny Keith Ryan, but no further chances presented themselves for Tipp.
Cork will now face Dublin or Galway in the final and Ryan had high praise for his charges.
“We were looking for effort, and we got that in spades, the lads tried fierce hard, including the subs we brought on,” he said. “We mightn’t have gotten the 1-12 we got against Limerick the last day [the total scored by subs in the semi-final], but they emptied the tank, they got the hooks and blocks in.
“Tipperary came back and got the goal, we’d be disappointed with that, but I thought we were deserving winners.
“Jack’s [Jack Cahalane] goal gave us that bit of breathing space. In fairness to Brian O’Sullivan, he could have taken a point with the initial chance but for an eighteen-year-old he showed good heart and determination to go for a goal. That’s what we’ve asked fellas, to take those opportunities.
“When Alan [Connolly] went off we missed a couple of frees, we had to change our free-taker, but I’m delighted with the lads’ attitude.”
Cork – beaten by Tipp in the last U21 final in 2018 and the first U20 decider in 2019 – are now in a third straight final, awaiting Leinster champions Dublin or Galway, with January 9/10 the scheduled date. They were able to afford a slow start here, with Devon Ryan putting Tipp 0-2 to 0-0 ahead early on, but Cork soon found their rhythm and Darragh Flynn and Barrett had them level with a pair of well-worked points and Alan Connolly put them ahead with a pair of frees.
With Eoin Carey impressing in midfield, they moved 0-8 to 0-4 in front when Colin O’Brien got his second point in the 22nd minute but Tipp came back well, led by the long-distance free-taking of captain Eoghan Connolly.
It was 0-10 to 0-9 for Cork at half-time and they couldn’t shake free of Tipp in the third quarter – in fact, Tipp should probably have had a goal but Kevin Maher was penalised for over-carrying when he was through and Ormond was denied by a Davis save.
In the closing stages, Cork made their push and, ultimately, it was sufficient to ensure the win. There are things to work on, though.
“We gave away a lot of frees but we’ve asked the lads to bring intensity to it,” Ryan said. “We have to be better in our tackling for the final, we need to be smarter, but the intensity we brought was excellent.
“I think our goalie brought off two brilliant saves. You have to make opportunities and I think Tipp’s free count was a lot higher than ours but I felt we were deserving winners. The lads worked hard and when you beat Tipperary in a Munster final you’re not going to be looking at negatives. The lads broke their asses and you’re going to make mistakes on December 23, we have to be cognisant of that. What the lads put out there was fantastic for 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds.”
The final had been scheduled for the weekend of January 9/10, but Ryan wouldn’t complain if it was put back.
“It’s great they played it off, it’s great it went ahead for our lads, but if they want to wait until February or March or whenever we’ll be there. I don’t think it’d be fair on any
team not to finish it out now.”
Eoin Davis; Conor O’Callaghan, Eoin Roche, Aaron Walsh Barry; Daire Connery 0-1, Ciarán Joyce, Daire O’Leary; Tommy O’Connell, Eoin Carey; Brian Roche 0-1, Darragh Flynn 0-1, Brian Hayes; Colin O’Brien 0-3, Alan Connolly 0-4 (frees), Shane Barrett 0-5. Subs: Shane O’Regan for Connolly (41), Jack Cahalane 1-1 (0-1f) for Hayes (44), Seán Twomey for Flynn (45), Brian O’Sullivan for Carey (50), Pádraig Power for O’Brien (56).
TIPPERARY: Aaron Browne; Éanna McBride, Darragh Flannery, Johnny Ryan; Conor Whelan, Eoghan Connolly 0-4 (frees), Ray McCormack; Kevin Maher, Kevin McCarthy; James Devaney, Andrew Ormond 1-3, Kian O’Kelly 0-1; Gearóid O’Connor, Devon Ryan 0-5 (3f), Conor Bowe 0-1. Subs: Seán Ryan for O’Kelly (48), Max Hackett for Devon Ryan (49), Keith Ryan for McCarthy (60).