EirGrid Munster U20FC phase 2 round 1

Tipperary 0-7 Cork 0-14


By Stephen Barry

Cork and Kerry motored smoothly through the gears to open their Munster round-robin campaigns with victories.

At Fethard, the Rebels earned a double-scores victory over Tipperary. Captain Hugh O’Connor (0-5) and midfielder Rory O’Shaughnessy (0-3) kicked a perfect eight points from eight attempts, while O’Connor came close to adding a pair of goals in the first half.

They didn’t need any. Going in 0-8 to 0-3 ahead having played with the breeze, Tipp could never get nearer than four points. Cork coasted to the finish and will move on to next Wednesday’s encounter with Kerry sharper for this run-out.

A notable feature was their emphasis on attacking marks. They claimed three inside the opening 20 minutes and converted each via Dara Sheedy (0-2) and O’Connor.

O’Connor almost found the net in the fourth minute but his palmed effort was saved by Robbie McGrath. He would later rattle the post after battling through some Tipp tacklers.

Midfielders Eoin Doocey and O’Shaughnessy traded classy left-footed points but Cork had the greater range of scorers. As well as Sheedy’s marks, Olan Corcoran and Bryan Hayes swung over skyscraping efforts to lead by five at midway.

O’Connor resumed with an amazing acute point on the wrong side for a right-footer but Tipp edged back into contention with a long-range beauty by Orrin Jones (0-5) and another from Shane Ryan.

The gap was back to four, 0-10 to 0-6, but Cork reasserted their control with two O’Connor frees bookending an O’Shaughnessy score. Substitute Aaron O’Sullivan capped their victory with a stoppage-time point.