Tipperary's Celtic Challenge teams have mixed results in respective round two games in Thurles

Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge - Group 1 - Round 2

Tipperary Blue 1-12

Cork Red 0-14

Tipperary’s Blue team made it two wins on the trot in Group 1 of the 2026 Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge competition, surviving a second-half assault from Cork Red to register the win in front of a nice crowd in Coolmore Morris Park on Saturday. 

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The main event of a doubleheader, there were so many similarities between this victory, and the win earned against Clare Saffron in the first round last Saturday. 

Again, Tipperary had the aid of a substantial gust in the first half, and managed to take a sizeable lead in at half-time that they would have to defend to record the win.

Once more, there were probably a few too many missed chances from the Tipperary youngsters with the elements in the first half, and that gave Cork an opportunity to slowly reel them in as the second half progressed.

Trailing by 1-10 to 0-5 at the break, the young Rebels would have their opportunities too, but when the game was their to be won, they hit some poor wides that Tipperary managed to capitalize on as substitute Noah Power picked off the winning score two minutes from time; one of only two points that the Premier would register in the second half.

The win was a priceless one, as it already guarantees that the Tipperary Blue team will top group with a game to spare ahead of a final round clash with Kilkenny next weekend.

Starting well with the aid of the elements despite Cork hitting the lead within 60 seconds, Tipp went to work at building a lead. The wind was such that anything less than a ten point advantage could be critical going in at the break.

Within ten minutes, Tipp had gone into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead thanks to two frees from Ollie Roche along with points from play by the energetic pairing Morgan O’Connr and Ben Roche who notched fine scores.

Newport’s Ollie Roche raised a green flag with the next effort in the 11th minutes, pouncing on a ricochet between a Tipperary and Cork player to flick the looping ball into his path and bury an effort to the back of the net past the Rebel netminder.

Thereafter, Tipp would hit four points in a row up to the 20th minute as their forward unit were enjoying the use of the elements; Ben Roche with his second point while two further frees from Ollie Roche and a first of the day by Charlie Lawlor had the Blues in a comfortable 1-8 to 0-2 with ten to go.

However, Cork’s youngsters did very well to hang in their and stem the Tipperary tide in the final ten minutes, forcing some wides from Premier attacks and finding priceless scores themselves.

Indeed, they would score three points to Tipperary’s two up to half-time that would give them hope as the score read 1-10 to 0-5 at the interval, with the gale gaining force rather than subsiding.

Cork would nail two quick points in the opening exchanges of the restart but a brilliantly worked score that ended with a Morgan O’Connor finish gave Tipperary a boost after eight minutes and kept the score ticking over for his side.

That score from the Cappawhite man in the 38th would be the only white flag raised for 20 minutes as Cork completely dominated the ball and won every battle around the field for large portions of the second half.

The Rebels slowly began to pull back the deficit and despite some real fight and resilience from Tipp, would be back on level terms by the 53rd minute after scoring seven points in succession.

They had sighters from long range frees in the proceedings minutes to take the lead for the first time since the first minute of the game, but the wayward shooting would come back to haunt them.

Tipperary’s resilience was on show for the second week running with the game in the melting pot, as the brilliance of Morgan O’Connor - who won a lot of possession against the head in the second half - set loose Noah Power inside the 21 and despite the ball not dropping into the Swan players path, he managed to turn back infield and rifle over a lead point with two minutes remaining.

Cork tried in vain to get the equalising score but some incredible defence from the Premier, including a fantastic diving block from Eoin Fanning late on, denied the travelling Rebels and gave Tipperary their second consecutive one-point win to top the group with one game to spare.

Scorers: Tipperary Blue: Ollie Roche (1-5, 0-5f), Ben Roche, Morgan O’Connor 0-2 each, Charlie Lawlor, Daniel McDonald, Noah Power all 0-1 each.:

Tipperary Blue: Odhran Ryan (Burgess); Ruairi Hackett (Kiladangan), Aaron Lane (Newport), Charlie Carroll (Roscrea); Jack Walsh (Carrick Swans), Stephen O'Brien (Newport), Eoin Fanning (Killenaule); Daniel McDonald (Loughmore Castleiney), Sean Lanphier (Moycarkey Borris); Kevin Grace (Ballinahinch), Alan Burke (Shannon Rovers); Morgan O'Connor (Cappawhite); Charlie Lawlor (St Mary's), Ollie Roche (Newport), Ben Roche (Kilsheelan Kilcash).

Subs used: Adam Norton (Gortnahoe Glengoole), Jack Murphy (Roscrea), Noah Power (Carrick Swans), Charlie Cairns (Burgess).

Referee: Kieran Guina (Limerick)

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