By Shane Brophy
Tipperary under 20 hurling manager Brendan Cummins admitted his side are now in knockout mode following their defeat to Cork in their second game of the Munster Championship last week.
The Premier County have just one point from their opening two games, albeit both away from home, and now likely have to beat Limerick and Waterford in their final two games in Thurles to reach the knockout stages.
“Looking at the way the calendar was at the start, two away games to start was always going to be a challenge,” he admitted.
“We got a point in Ennis which was great, tonight not so much but it is all finished now, and we focus on Limerick.
“We just have to make sure we win our next two games. The score difference, whatever it is, if we beat Limerick by a point and Waterford by a point, let’s see how it all pans out then.
“The reality is other teams are going to take points of each other, Waterford in the last two games have been seriously impressive but were just in hard luck not to take goal chances.”
Tipperary started strongly on Leeside and led 0-11 to 0-7 on 27 minutes but ended up trailing at half time and struggled to contain a powerful Cork side in the second half, while also struggling to impose their game on Cork.
“Cork had gotten a bit of momentum before the end of the first half, and we thought half time would break it a little bit,” Cummins added.
“But in the second half they were extremely good, they turned us over as we tried to come out with the ball and punished us. They were well deserving for their win.”
He added: “We were trying to keep it away from (Eoin) Downey as best we could, and we were doing that very well (in the first half) but in the second half we had to go long as they were trapping us inside our own 45, but we just couldn't get the distance to get the ball over Downey’s head. He’s a senior hurler and his experience meant he was able to read it very well, snuff it out and then launch the next attack and that was the difficulty we had in the second half.
“They set-up really well, they were really strong in the tackle around our 45-65 which meant they couldn’t get the head up to the get the ball into the two boys inside.
“In fairness to the lads, they were all the time trying to run it, there’s unbelievable bravery from the lads coming out with the ball, the likes of Danny Slattery knowing that every puckout you are going to get is short and you have to run it 140-yard from the opposition goal, so he and Robert and Luke inside were brilliant.
“To fair, all the lads, Stephen Dee got some action tonight, so we are building and getting more experience.
“Overall, Cork were just better. We have to learn and have to learn fast. I believe we will as I have huge trust in the group we have. They are dedicated to the cause, they are really good, and there is good character in there, but we are tested now and have our backs to the wall and the only way we can go now is forward.
“The best thing about this round-robin is we have two games to win against Limerick and Waterford and if we can do that then tonight is just a footnote in the calendar, but the next game is the most important one.”
