Cummins lauds his team’s effort despite tough Munster semi-final loss in Thurles

Disappointment rang through in the bowels of FBD Semple Stadium last Monday night, as Tipp fell at th semi-final hurdle to Clare.

Reflecting on the outcome of the game, Tipperary manager Brendan Cummins portrayed a scene of utter dejection in the dressing room, with his players having given their all during the game.

“Yeah, it’s heart wrenching for the lads,” Cummins said.

“Having done as well as we did through the round robin to then lose by nine is disappointing.

“But well done to Clare, they’re fine and big and strong.

“They won an awful lot of rucks and were very strong in the air and when they got the goal chances they took them and in the end that was the major difference.

The game was so finely balanced with a quarter to go in the second half, but it was a combination of missed frees, mistakes on the ball and an inability to establish any momentum that finally caught up with Tipp late on in the game, as Clare finished the stronger team in the end.

“In fairness to Clare they are so big and physical and I think they have six or seven who were on the senior panel during the course of the league and that extra bit of physicality means you can start running up a funnel for all the world and that made it very hard for us to break the tackle.

“But the lads, to their credit, kept trying to run the ball as best we could and play it in a bit more, but in the end Clare’s physicality was the little bit of a difference in the end I would say,” he added.

A number of big goal chances eluded Tipp in the final ten minutes when they would have swung the momentum of the game, and Cummins rued this when reflecting on the late flurry of Clare goals which sank his charges.

“We got a couple of goal chances I would say where we just didn’t get that flick or a bit of luck and in the finish the last high ball came into the square and ended up coming off a helmet or something and went into the net.

“So, it’s fine margins in fairness but I couldn’t be prouder of this bunch of players. Since we started back in January they have done everything that’s been asked of them. We had 34 bodies that gave everything for Tipperary and it’s not easy when you’ve to tell them three nights before the match that they’re on the panel or not on the panel and everyone of them took it like men.

“I think Tipperary hurling is in a great space. I said it to them inside (dressing room) that they have to all go back to their clubs and put their hands up in front of Liam Cahill when they get out of the U20 age group.

“But for me and my management team we have to dust ourselves down and look where it went wrong over the course of the summer and get going again because it only feels like yesterday that we lost the Munster final, so it all comes around very quickly.

“In my experience that’s the way it is, and I don’t think tonight is a fair reflection of where they’re at but that’s just the way sport goes.

“There’s a huge amount of positives to come out of tonight.

“We didn’t get the scores or the result that we wanted but part of my role here was to develop players and we’d like to think that there’s a nice few in there that can make the step up,” he concluded.