*Ronan Kilroy and Paul Rodgers. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CLARE’S U20 hurlers were ‘relieved and flattered to get out of jail’ by starting their Munster championship with a victory.
In what was Clare’s first home win in the competition since May 2024 and the first at O’Garney Park in Sixmilebridge since April 2024, a late Fred Hegarty goal and point from Ronan Kilroy saw them eek out a 1-10 0-12 victory at Waterford’s expense.
Manager Terence Fahy was well aware that Clare were lucky to emerge with their first two points of the campaign. “We were charmed to get a result at the death but we will take it, Waterford looked like they nudged forward at the end and they had a few chances, they missed them and that left us hanging. We got a goal to take it at the death so we’re delighted to get a win, we were here last year twice and didn’t get a win so we didn’t underestimate Waterford far from it, they are coming up out of their cycle and we’re very proud of the boys to dig out a win on a night that we didn’t play well”.
Standards will have to be upped by Clare, he acknowledged. “We’re relieved and we’re flattered because we got out of jail, we got a win. We’re in a better position than we were last year when we came here twice and didn’t get a win, we’ll take it with both hands and we’ll be delighted to take it, we’re hoping to drive to a higher standard now”.
A return of four points in the entire opening half stood out as one of the big areas for improvement for Clare. “Some of our challenge matches were high scoring but we had one against Galway which was low scoring from both sides, our defence was good tonight and we didn’t concede a lot. To score 0-4 in the first half was very disappointing, we had ten chances and only scored four of them. We weren’t creating enough and we certainly weren’t sufficient enough with our chances, we got two from play and two from frees which left Waterford controlling the game in the second quarter, they should have been further ahead, there was only one score in it at half time and that flattered us severely”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Fahy felt Clare’s ball retention and decision making led to Waterford dominating possession in the opening half, particularly centre back Joe McDonnell. “We didn’t retain ball in our forward line in the first half, we retained it a little bit better in the second half but in the first half we really struggled to retain ball and we had a poor return on our own puckout which gave them a platform particularly in the second quarter. There was a bit of nerves, a few lads uncharacteristically so struggled on the ball and with the ball, they will be disappointed but they will reboot and go at it again, they will have a higher standard as we go deeper into the competition”.
Giving Clare the lead for only the second time in the game was their third quarter where they outscored Waterford 0-4 0-0 with Ryan Hayes, Daniel Costello, Hegarty and Jack Mescall on target. “We got more shots off, we got par with them and then we got a point ahead of them, they came back again but the third quarter was important because we needed to give a response to the second quarter”.
Clare have a bye in round two and will be back in championship action on Wednesday April 8th when they return to Sixmilebridge, this time with Limerick as their opponents.
