After a day of blazing intensity in the Munster hurling championship, which saw champions Limerick stumble again and Clare return to the provincial final, probably against Tipperary, it was an extraordinary development in Leinster that grabbed the headlines.
Westmeath, blitzed by 34 points in their last outing by Galway, rose from the metaphorical grave of trailing Wexford by 16 points at half time, 17 at one stage, to fashion a scarcely believable victory, 4-18 to 2-22, away to the 2019 champions in Wexford Park.
Two injury-time goals from replacement Niall Mitchell completed the comeback, which places Westmeath outside the relegation zone with a home match against Antrim to come.
“We were very honest with each other at half-time,” Westmeath manager Joe Fortune told RTÉ Sport. “We just told them it wasn’t good enough.
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“People take all the accolades as managers and coaches at times. That’s not true; it has to come from your group and when they’re a strong unit and they believe and they ask themselves the questions, that’s the most important thing.”
Sensationally, unless Wexford beat Kilkenny in their last match, they are vulnerable to relegation themselves were Antrim to defeat Westmeath and leave them on two points. Darragh Egan’s team would then lose out on the head-to-head and Wexford would be regraded into next year’s McDonagh Cup.
Firmly back in Tier 1, there were two elemental Munster championship matches in Ennis and Thurles. In Cusack Park, Clare finished out in stunning style to take the narrowest of wins against a Cork side that although never in front during the second half, had squared the match in injury-time.
Diarmuid Ryan’s winning score in the 74th minute gave Clare the win and rounded off a good afternoon for the half-back line. Ryan hit 0-4 from play, David McInerney shot another two, including an immediate riposte to Cork’s third goal, which had tied up the match in the 65th minute.
[ Diarmuid Ryan’s late missile takes Clare back into Munster finalOpens in new window ]
In between them John Conlon had another influential display to supplement his Hurler of the Month award for April.
Manager Brian Lohan paid tribute to the home supporters in a capacity crowd.
“I thought the support was fantastic. A lot of those people there supporting the team have put an awful lot into all those lads whether they trained them at Under-6 or looked after them, driving them here and there.”
He said that his half backs had enjoyed greater freedom because of Cork’s tactics.
“I suppose they had (Ciarán) Joyce sitting back in front of the full-back line and was starting to dominate the game and getting on a lot of ball. We probably had a bit of space in our half-back line, a bit of freedom to come up the field. Fair play to our lads: it’s all very well having that space but putting the ball over the bar is crucial.”
Cork now face a trip to Limerick next week with continued interest in the championship at stake for the teams. Manager Pat Ryan was philosophical about that prospect when asked about the big task ahead.
“Yeah, it is. We kind of knew that when we drew with Tipperary, we knew that the task was going to be huge. We had to win one of these two games. Obviously came up short against Clare today so we’re up against Limerick next Sunday again.
“It’s a mammoth task now. We’ll try and raise the lads now again. They’re very disappointed with that result but we have Limerick next week.”
Limerick were once again stress tested beyond general expectation. Tipperary have improved a great deal under Liam Cahill but the absence of experienced sharpshooter Jason Forde because of injury had been seen a bridge too far for the challengers.
Instead, they raised a storm and kept the lead for most of the match. Limerick rallied in the second half and wrestled some element of control in their familiar stomping ground, the middle third.
Tipp still remained in front and in contention until a dramatic endgame which saw Tom Morrissey nudge the champions ahead.
More than 77 minutes had elapsed when replacement John McGrath addressed a free from around the 65-metre line. He had missed a similar award in Cork a fortnight ago with the winning of the match in prospect.
This time, there was no mistake and the equaliser flew over, 0-25 to 0-25. Should Tipperary as expected beat Waterford next week, they will join Clare in the final. For Limerick, All-Ireland survival is on the table when Cork visit but their Munster title looks gone.
