Fitzgibbon Cup quarter final round up: Tipperary players prominent for UL

The Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-finals took place this week with plenty of Tipperary interest involved once again as the final four colleges were confirmed for next week's semi-finals.

The first game of the round took place on Wednesday night, January 8th between SETU Waterford and DCU with the south east college prevailing on a 3-16 to 2-16 score line.

Waterford senior hurler Reuben Halloran topped scored with 0-8f while Cork senior Sean Walsh bagged 0-5 from play in the win. No Tipperary players played in this game.

On Thursday night, the other three quarter-finals took place with the clash between SETU Carlow and University of Galway ended in the westerners coming out on top by 0-20 to 2-11.

Kenny Ryan (Toomevara) was the sole Tipperary representative in this game and lined out at wing forward for SETU Carlow in the game, scoring a first half point before being withdrawn before half time due to a head injury after colliding with a teammate.

Evan Niland was the big difference between the teams scoring (0-12, 0-11f) in the game and essentially won the game with his placed balls.

UCC booked their place in the semi-final with a hard fought win over ATU Galway in the Mardyke by 0-20 to 1-13.

Darragh Flynn of Ballygiblin topped scored for the skull and bones with (0-14, 0-11f) as the Cork dominated school had too much for their Galway counterparts. No Tipperary players were involved in this game.

Finally, University of Limerick continued their impressive march to back to back titles with another emphatic win, this time against UCD by a 4-19 to 0-10 score line.

Tipperary senior panelists Bryan O'Mara (Holycross Ballycahill), Gearoid O'Connor (Moyne Templetuohy) and Rhys Shelly (Moycarkey Borris). O'Mara had another typically dominating display at centre back, scoring 0-1 from play, while O'Connor continued his good form scoring (0-5, 0-2f) during the game.

There was a less than satisfying outing for Shelly though, who made way through injury after the goalkeeper picked up some kind of injury after 21 minutes and was replaced by Dean Mason, while Eoin Purcell (Thurles Sarsfields) made a late appearance for the Dublin college.

The semi-final pairings are taking place next week on Thursday, February 16th with UCC taking on University of Galway while University of Limerick face SETU Waterford.