A spirited last 20 minutes by the all-Galway Connacht side swept them to victory over fancied Munster in the Railway Cup hurling final at Thurles yesterday - a win that should greatly boost Galway hurling. With an official attendance of only 487 this contest was pedestrian for 40 minutes with Munster seemingly on course for their 42nd title. Having led 0-10 to 0-9 at the end of a modest first half Munster extended their lead to four points by the 10th minute of the second period. Then in the space of two minutes the whole complexion of the game changed. First Kevin Broderick showed an electrifying turn of pace to race past three Munster defenders for Connacht's first goal. A minute later Ollie Canning did the spadework and Ollie Fahy applied the finishing touch for a second goal that put Connacht ahead 2-10 to 0-14.
As the tempo of the game intensified Tipperary's Liam Cahill and Tommy Dunne combined to produce Dunne's 14th-minute goal to restore Munster's lead. However, after Fahy levelled for Connacht in the 15th minute the usually impeccable Dunne twice missed scoreable frees and these were to prove crucial as Fahy again pointed to put Connacht into the lead. Munster suffered a serious blow when Cork's Brian Corcoran was stretchered off with a knee injury three minutes from time.
As the prospect of extra time loomed Fahy crowned a splendid individual performance with an injury time point that gave Connacht their 10th title and first since 1994.
CONNACHT (all Galway): M Crimmons; L Hodgins, B Feeney, C Moore; P Walsh, N Larkin, P Hardiman; R Gantley, A Kerins (0-2); O Canning, J Rabbitte (0-1), K Broderick (1-1); O Fahy (1-4), M Kerins (0-1), E Cloonan (0-4).
MUNSTER: B Cummins (Tipperary); F Ryan (Cork), D O'Sullivan (Cork), B Corcoran (Cork); L Doyle (Clare), O Moran (Limerick), S Og hAilpin (Cork); M O'Connell (Cork) 0-2, T Dunne (Tipperary) 1-5; A Markham (Clare) 0-2, F McCormack (Cork), K McGrath (Waterford) 0-1, L Cahill (Tipperary) 0- 3, N Gilligan (Clare), S McGrath (Cork) 0-2. Subs: D Shanahan ( Waterford) for Dunne; D Kennedy (Tipperary) for Corcoran.
