PREVIEW: Premier seek home comfort at last against Clare in crucial Munster clash
Tipperary will face Clare in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship on Saturday
Munster Senior Hurling Championship - Round 4 Preview
Tipperary vs Clare in TUS Gaelic Grounds, Saturday, May 16 at 7pm
Records are made to be broken, and the hope for the Tipperary senior hurlers this Saturday is that they will finally trump the strong away record of Clare in Thurles in the Munster round robin.
Since the inception of the round robin format in 2018, both Tipperary and Clare have failed to win their home game in this fixture, which is an incredible statistic. What stands out most about the phenomenon is that there has always tended to be one team and a low ebb, and the other on high, with the exception perhaps of the 2018 tie that was decided late on.
Still, that year, Tipperary weren't at their best and in the games since then, that pattern has been clear.
The following year, in 2019, Tipperary arrived in Ennis and managed to overturn Clare with relative ease before going on to win the All-Ireland later that summer. Covid struck before the next game in the round robin in 2022, and it was Clare's turn to do the damage, doling out a big beating to Tipp in Thurles before contesting and coming close to Munster and All-Ireland honours.
Five goals were struck by the Tipperary forwards in Ennis in the 2023 clash as the Premier were victorious on that occasion, before the 2024 clash that was essentially a dead rubber, with Clare managing to win the game whilst resting bodies before a Munster final clash with Limerick.
And of course, last year's pivotal clash in Ennis last year. Tipperary raced into a big lead with four first-half goals and, despite a late Clare comeback, came away as winners and that provided a massive springboard for the success to come against Cork in Croke Park.
With the exception of 2019, all those games had so much riding on them, and the 2026 edition will be no different in that regard. Even more so from a Tipperary perspective, as a win is an absolute must, whilst Clare will still have a second bite at the cherry against Cork in the final round, come what may.
There are few contrasts heading into this game. Tipperary have had a patchy league campaign, and that trend has continued into the championship and while there were flashes of the form during the Waterford stalemate that took Tipp to All-Ireland glory, the continuing third-quarter struggles reared its head again in Walsh Park, coughing up a double-digit lead in the second half. That, coupled with the no-show in the Cork game, has left Liam Cahill's men floundering.
Clare plied their trade in Division 1B of the league, and that looks to have done little favours for the Banner. They hit their straps in an attacking sense against Waterford in Ennis to secure an early win in the round robin, but their defensive issues were laid bare against Limerick in the last game, shipping a huge score in a hammering, despite the alarm bells of the concessions against the Déise there for all to see.
The defensive frailties of both teams will be a key factor here, as whoever can stem the flow in the contest will go a long way to sealing a vital win.
In terms of attacking talent, both teams are heavily stacked. Clare have been led by Mark Rodgers in this championship thus far, but the quiet concern of how quiet the usually threatening and mercurial duo of Shane O'Donnell and Tony Kelly have been is ominous from a Tipperary viewpoint.
However, the poor form at the back with the likes of Conor Cleary and Adam Hogan, along with the struggling Conor Leen and Rory Hayes in the full back line, is the main source of glee for Tipperary heading into this. John Conlon has yet to feature, though and will surely be sprung at some point, while David McInerney returned from the bench in the Limerick loss and will bolster the ranks well.
In the case of Tipperary, it has been a three-week break where plenty of homework will have been done on the opposition. Players like Darragh McCarthy, John McGrath, and Jake Morris will need to deliver more up front, while the defensive unit needs to be a lot harder to play against if the victory is to be secured.
It has been some time since we had a really close, blow-for-blow game that had such high stakes between these teams, and given the frailties of both, it could well be a case of which team manages to avoid defeat, rather than goes out and wins the game. Here's hoping it will be the Premier roaring in Thurles on Saturday night.