IT WASN’T THE dream victory that would have pushed them straight through to the Munster U20 final, but Clare did hand Tipperary their first defeat of this year’s campaign, and their 0-18 to 1-14 win – secured thanks to two late frees from Conor Whelan – means that they will enjoy home advantage for their semi-final clash with Cork next Friday night.
A win by seven or more would have seen them overtake Tipp at the top of the table and earn the automatic final slot, but there was no stage in this game where that looked likely.
Whelan had an incredible evening at Semple Stadium, shooting all bar two of the Banner County’s total. In the first half he was effectively unstoppable, scoring 0-10 out of Clare’s 0-11, with five points from play and five from frees.
Tipperary made a bright start, with both Oisín O’Donoghue and Paddy McCormack scoring from play as they moved 0-4 to 0-1 in front, but they could have been even more in front at that stage, with O’Donoghue firing over the bar when a goal was on, and another four attempts at goal didn’t hit the target.
When Clare started to get ball into the forwards, they were much more efficient, with Jack O’Neill and Michael Collins winning frees and helping to create the conditions that allowed Whelan to thrive.
An injury to McCormack blunted the Tipp attack slightly but O’Donoghue did find the net early in the second half and slowly, methodically, and largely on the back of Darragh McCarthy frees, they got their noses in front in the last ten minutes, and still led by one going into overtime.
Enter Whelan to flip the script once more.
There was nothing but pride at stake in the game between Limerick and Waterford at Rathkeale, where the home side came back from conceding the only goal of the game to Jack Twomey to sneak an 0-20 to 1-16 win.
Twomey’s wonderful solo score briefly helped Waterford to lead by four, but Limerick took over the for the remainder of the half with Vince Harrington, Shane O’Brien, Oisín O’Farrell and Cian Scully all scoring in their run to an 0-14 to 1-7 half-time lead.
Waterford were marginally the better side in the second half but they never got the second goal they needed and despite Patrick Fitzgerald scoring 0-11 (0-9f), they fell just short.
There was also action in the Connacht Minor Football Championship this evening, where Mayo did Galway a favour by edging out Sligo by 1-12 to 0-11, ensuring that Galway scraped into the knockout stages by virtue of their 2-17 to 1-10 win over Leitrim at Ballinamore.
Mayo were into the Connacht final with Roscommon assured of second spot regardless of results this evening, while Sligo would have advanced to take on the Rossies next Friday if they got a draw or better at Markievicz Park.
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Very poor performance in a very poor game in very poor conditions but we got the result. Tis a grand thing to win a game when playing that badly. It wasn’t even a game for the purists in the end.
@Jim Demps: I suppose congratulations are in order. It’s not often Munster win away in Wales. Or away anywhere really. It’s easy to see why they haven’t won a trophy in years
@bread of heaven: Great story. You should tell that at house parties.
@borgig: era you’re better off blocking Bread of Heaven. He’s nothing but a troll
@bread of heaven: You’re a dope
@bread of heaven: I think you were meant to post that under the name Jim Demps. You forgot to change your account. So you’re the Irish Pain, bread of heaven and Jim Demps.
@bread of heaven: whoops!
@Garrett Kelleher: Real split personality, good call out
@Garrett Kelleher: I’d say you’re onto something there. There’s only one me though, the other two lads certainly look like they want to be me mind.
@bread of heaven: I didn’t think welsh rugby supporters were allowed to say anything in public after their showing in the champions and challenge cup.
@Martin Quinn: correct all around. Wasnt a spectacular of a weekend by any means. There are years those wins and draw would be greatly appreciated but that weekend looked dour. I thought Scarlets deserved a win but they just seemed incapable of turning possession and territory into points in that 1st half. Leinster weren’t great either but just seemed to get those points. Maybe some luck involved too.
@Pseud O’Nym: haha, great handle, you have the perfect name for calling out that mix up by the bread of heaven póster whoever they are.
That was an abysmal rugby match. Both sides were very poor to say the least, granted in dire conditions. A win is a win tho and no injuries were picked up it seems. No real stand out performances, only one who impressed me was Wycherly he has a very bright future.
Like last night an ugly win is still a win. Sign of champions winning without your best players.
14 points conceded in last 2 matches not a bad way of looking at it
@Folíní: one of them are the dragons
@Eoin Murphy: no fly’s on you
Terrible game of rugby. Both sides Kicked the leather off it. But a win is a win I suppose.
@Luke walkee: agreed. Poor tactics in the conditions. More offloads and through the backs the better option.
@Leo Erah: I’d say the weather conditions and the number of changes dictated the limited game plan.
@Leo Erah: In those conditions? No you’re almost better off without the ball in that type of a game.
Brutal match, 4 points though so happy!
We were poor. Weather is not an excuse, toothless & brainless in attack and Dragon’s cut through us with impunity when the urge took them. Having said that, they were lucky to get away with just the one yellow. Bleyendaal… Thank flip he was at 12, as any time he put boot to ball it went terribly wrong. We’ll take it, but depth is not as great as thought.
@Tomás O’Loughlin: Cut through with impunity? They barely ran the ball. They kicked in in behind us all day all right. Have a look at the stats. Munster beat them soundly every part of the game. Meters made, carries, turnovers, passes, tackles…..
@Mark Wallace: They made easy ground every single time they ran the ball. It took us 5 attempts to ground our try. Were you watching a different match?
@Tomás O’Loughlin: Yeah! Best position for Bleyendaal is the bench. Scrappy game could have gone either way.
Both teams made around 90% of their tackles. There was 118 kicks and 37 lineouts…. Not the most entertaining of games.
Another awful performance… victories masking how poor they’re actually playing… they’ll be found fairly soon when they meet decent opposition… can’t fault the players for attitude effort and workrate they’re just very poorly coached… jones has to go come the summer… van graan doesn’t seem to be improving them either like friend or mcfarland are with their privinces… be interesting to see the wagebill of todays munster team against the one lining out for the dragons huge difference id say
@Tomas Lyons: In the quarters finals in Europe, top of the conference in the Pro14 and second to Leinster overall. Yeah they’re awful.
@Mark Wallace: ya we’ll see come the end of the season what trophies we’ve won… not saying theyre awful but their not moving onto the level u need to be to win silverware…. we’ll win the same as we did for the last few yrs zilch!!!
@Tomas Lyons: ‘victories mask how poor they are playing’? Sorry?? Surely the main aim is victory?
a penance of a game …weather , players, tactics and officials were dire. only one to come out with a modicum of credit was sweetnam. I really think he could turn out to be a fine player. finding it tough to get a look in for the bigger games …may open up for him if Conway was considered at 15 but haley has been doing well there too.
Yeah sweetman looked sharp. I like the way he was tackled in the air but by no means looked for the penalty.
I dont get the Bleyendaal at 12 experiment. Sam Arnold and Jaco Taute are both fine 12s if we are without Rory Scannell.
Badly managed, Dragons played the conditions much better, VG clearly doesn’t understand this type of game, same of TB who really should never have been made captain, decision making was terrible. This overheard comment sums it up… “clearly they never played a derby match on the back pitch in Thomond on a winters evening”