Cork v Tipperary: Rebels finish well to ensure third straight win as both finish with 14
Tempers flare between the two teams coming up to half-time. Picture: Inpho/Ben Brady
A record crowd for a regular-season national hurling clash saw Cork make it three wins from three with victory over Tipperary on Saturday night at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Before an attendance of 30,910, Ben O’Connor’s side led by four points at the end of a first half that climaxed with some peacocking on both sides that led to a red card each.
The break ensured a lowering of the temperature and allowed the hurling to resume but, while Tipp engineered some early chances, they were wasteful. Cork managed to move seven points clear on a couple of occasions with Alan Connolly nailing frees and William Buckley ever lively in a roving corner-forward brief, but a goal to put the game to bed did not materialise despite some probing passes.
The introduction of Eoghan Connolly in defence and Darragh McCarthy gave Tipp free-taking threats long and short, while Noel McGrath’s experience was also a help as they clawed their way back, with Cork’s wides tally mounting in the closing stages.
McCarthy ignored the catcalls to land three in quick succession, reducing the lead to three for the first time in the second half as the made it 0-24 to 0-21 on 66.
After a couple of missed chances, Cork captain Darragh Fitzgibbon made it a four-point game again with a free for his seventh point but Tipp had an Eoghan Connolly 65 as the game moved into injury time.
They would not score again though as Cork finished with two from Connolly and one each from sub Tim O’Mahony and Diarmuid Healy to win by seven.
The large number present came to see many things and would certainly have been entertained by an eventful first half.
The 0-16 to 0-12 scoreline in favour of Cork at that stage was not unlike the 1-16 to 0-13 interval state of affairs in the All-Ireland final – on that occasion, Shane Barrett had the Cork goal whereas here he was the recipient of a red card.
The Blarney man saw red in the fifth minute of first-half injury time, along with Tipp’s Jason Forde – it was injury time that saw no ball pucked as the fracas that developed in the 34th minute was one with enthusiastic participation.
Alan Connolly and Willie Connors, whose floor grappling had started it, each received a yellow card and, after consultation with his assistants, referee Liam Gordon deemed Barrett and Forde to have led the unwanted contributions from elsewhere.
The chant of ‘Rebels’ that broke out during this period showed that the bulk of the crowd were not too averse to Cork fronting up to such a challenge and they had already done that on the hurling front, having pushed on during the 10-minute period in which they held a man advantage after a black card for Tipp’s Johnny Ryan.
The corner-back had fouled Barrett for a penalty in the 18th minute after great determination by William Buckley to keep the ball in opposition territory and was adjudged to have denied a goalscoring opportunity. Unfortunately for Cork, who held an 0-8 to 0-6 advantage at the time, Declan Dalton couldn’t repeat his bullet from the Waterford match as Rhys Shelly saved well.
In the minutes after that long-range Forde frees helped Tipp to draw level at 0-10 before Cork, with Mark Coleman operating as the spare man, hit a groove with five points on the trot.
Micheál Mullins’ good sideline cut allowed Alan Connolly to get his third; then Fitzgibbon’s delivery was broken by Buckley for Connolly to add another before he set up Barrett for his second after good play from Coleman.
Good play from Dáire O’Leary at full-back led to the excellent Robert Downey playing a nice ball up the line for Diarmuid Healy to get his second and then superb skill from Coleman secured possession and he linked with Barrett for Eoin Downey’s second long-ranger of the night – 0-15 to 0-10 on the half-hour.
It had only reduced slightly by the whistle, with flaring tempers impinging on the opportunities to hurl, and while Tipp did get back to three in the closing stages, Cork held out.
They move to six on the table ahead of two free weekends before travelling to face Kilkenny.
P Collins; G Millerick, D O’Leary, S O’Donoghue; E Downey, R Downey, M Coleman; M Mullins, E Twomey; D Fitzgibbon, S Barrett, D Healy; D Dalton, A Connolly, W Buckley.
C O’Brien for Coleman (half-time), T O’Mahony for Mullins, B Hayes for Dalton (45), H O’Connor for Twomey (52), R O’Flynn for Buckley (64).
R Shelly; C O’Reilly, J Ryan, B O’Mara; S O’Farrell, C Morgan, S Kennedy; W Connors, C Stakelum; A Ormond, J Morris, J Kelleer; J Forde, O O’Donoghue, D Stakelum.
J McGrath for Stakelum (half-time), E Connolly for Kennedy (45), N McGrath for Keller (49), D McCarthy for O’Donoghue (55), P McCormack for Ormonde (61).
L Gordon (Galway).
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