All-Ireland MHC Quarter-final: A superb display of finishing skill from corner forward Patrick Bourke helped Tipperary to the most comfortable of victories over a battling Carlow outfit in their All-Ireland minor hurling championship quarter-final at Nowlan Park, Kilkenny, on Saturday.
Carlow had got the start they needed following their demoralising defeat at the hands of Kilkenny in the provincial final.
At the end of the opening quarter the sides were level 0-3 each with Carlow winning their share of outfield possession, while three Paudie Kehoe points countered three points from Patrick Bourke.
After Bourke had pointed his side in front one minute later, the corner forward was involved in setting up Timmy Dalton for the game's opening goal after 17 minutes.
Carlow, to their credit, were battling their way back into the game, but a bit of misfortune was to strike in the 19th minute which changed the whole complexion of the game when a Pádraig Amond goalbound shot came back off the underside of the crossbar with goalkeeper John Ryan well beaten.
Instead of having reduced the deficit to a point, Carlow were stung by the ferocity of the Tipperary counter-attack, with full-forward Tony Dunne firing home a goal, and with Gearóid Ryan adding a point, before Brendan Maher soloed through for a fine individual goal, amazingly within seven minutes Tipperary had stretched into an 11-point lead, 3-5 to 0-3.
Having trailed 3-10 to 0-4 at the interval, Carlow opened the second half impressively with three successive points through Aaron Cox, Paudie Kehoe and Denis Murphy. But it was Tipperary who regained the initiative, with Bourke firing home a 39th-minute goal to leave no way back for the Barrowsiders.
This was a superb display from Bourke who finished the game with 1-12, 1-6 from play, with Kilkenny manager Br Brennan no doubt having taken note of the talismanic display from the stand. For Carlow it was the end of a glorious year despite their two successive defeats.
They reached the provincial final for the first time in the county's history, while right now they will be hoping to build on this for next year with no fewer than nine of the side available, while three of the players who started out in this quarter-final clash are just 16 years of age.
TIPPERARY: J Ryan; M Cahill, P Maher, D Maher; E Hogan, T Stapleton, J O'Keeffe; J McLoughney, B Maher (1-0); S Hennessy, T McGrath, G Ryan (0-2); T Dalton (1-4), T Dunne (1-0), P Bourke (1-12, 0-6 frees). Subs: M Gleeson (0-1) for Dunne; N McGrath for D Maher; C Dillon for B Maher; L Mackey for Hogan; S Callinan for McLoughney.
CARLOW: J Kehoe; D Byrne, B Nolan, HP O'Byrne; B Doyle, D Kavanagh, J Kinsella; R Coady, P Walsh; J Kavanagh, C Coughlan, A Cox (0-1); P Kehoe (0-7, four frees), P Amond (0-2), D Murphy (0-2). Subs: C Clancy for Walsh; C Doyle for Coughlan; S O'Hara for D Byrne; D Tuite for Kinsella; D Goley for O'Byrne.
Referee: D Magee (Down).
