Tipperary's crunch hurling clash with Galway will be shown live on RTÉ

Tipperary's All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship quarter-final against Galway at the TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick on Saturday evening (6.15) will be shown live on RTÉ. 

The Gaelic Grounds will also play host to the other quarter-final between Clare and Dublin, which starts at 4pm, and which will also be broadcast live on RTÉ.

The Tipp/Galway game will be refereed by Wicklow official John Keenan, while Limerick referee Johnny Murphy will be in charge of the other quarter-final.

If necessary extra-time will be played and both games will finish on the day. 

Speaking after last weekend's preliminary quarter-final defeat of Offaly, Tipperary's Dan McCormack said that the quarter-final against Galway would be "a huge challenge" for the team.

A major challenge was something that Tipperary didn’t encounter in Saturday’s landslide, historic and record-breaking 32-points win over Offaly in Glenisk O’Connor Park, Tullamore.

Tipperary hit 7-38 (59 points) in their destruction of the home side, the highest team score in All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship history. It was the highest score since Wexford scored 12-17 (53 points) in the 1954 All-Ireland semi-final against Antrim.

After 30 minutes Tipp had scored 3-22, which would have been enough to win nine of the eleven games played in this year’s Munster championship.

They were ruthless, professional and clinical in the way in which they stamped their total authority on this tie against the beaten Joe McDonagh Cup finalists.

These teams operate at different levels of the league and championship and it showed, with the visitors much faster in thought and deed, as they simply blew their opponents away.

It was abundantly clear from the early stages that Tipperary had found a cure for any hangover that may have lingered from their surprise setback against Waterford in the last round of the group stage of the Munster championship.

A flurry of points gave them an early advantage in Tullamore before Mark Kehoe sauntered through the Offaly cover to arrow a shot to the corner of the net for their first goal in the seventh minute. That made it 1-5 to no score and the Kilsheelan/Kilcash player finished up with a total of 3-3 from play.

As Tipp rediscovered the elegant rhythm that had been a hallmark of their early displays in the provincial championship, they led by 3-25 to 1-10 at half-time. By then, their sizable support in the attendance of 9,962 had already started making plans for and turning their thoughts towards the quarter-final.

The second goal was scored by Seamus Callanan, his 40th in senior championship hurling, after great work by Alan Tynan to pickpocket Offaly’s Jason Sampson. When he buried that chance like the Seamus Callanan of old in the 27th minute, ten Tipp players had registered scores.

The third goal came after a half an hour from Jason Forde, who marked his return to the team from injury with a haul of 2-11, including 2-4 from play.

If it was a boxing match it would have been called off at half-time, it was that one-sided.

Not surprisingly, the level of Tipp’s performance dipped in the second half, although they still scored 4-16, the goals coming from Mark Kehoe (two), Jason Forde’s first-time effort and substitute John McGrath, to round off their 7-38 to 3-18 victory.

The only downside of the day from a Tipp viewpoint was the departure of defender Craig Morgan 13 minutes into the second half, on his return following a long lay-off through injury.

The Kilruane MacDonaghs player left Tullamore with strapping on his leg above the knee, although the injury isn’t believed to be as serious as was initially feared and has been described as a hamstring cramp.

By the end, flashes of lightning lit up the venue amid the rumbles of thunder and the torrential rain as those supporters on the uncovered terrace without umbrellas scurried for cover.

Despite their team’s heavy defeat, the person in control of the PA displayed their sense of humour by playing ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ at the finish, which just about summed up Offaly’s day, as Tipperary banished the ghosts of the defeat by Waterford.

Three players who weren’t included in the matchday squad because of injury - Cathal Barrett, Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher and Conor Bowe - are expected to be available this weekend.