*Clare wing forward, Seán Rynne. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
IN just his second ever championship start for the Clare senior hurlers, Seán Rynne was one of the standout performers in Sunday’s six point win.
The Clare Echo’s coverage of the Munster SHC is with thanks to McKeoghs Home Garden Build.
At wing forward, Rynne demonstrated his ability to time runs off the shoulder to perfection as he clocked up a personal tally of five points but coupled with this his workrate and physicality ensured his presence was known around the middle third.
It was this attitude that Clare focused on before a ball was pucked in the Munster SHC. “We worked really hard, that was the foundation of the performance, once you are doing that the scores will come. We put a big emphasis before the game on workrate”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, the UL economics student who was drafted into the senior squad in June 2023, outlined that battle to get into the side is as fierce as he has experienced. “There’s savage competition in the squad, it is the most competitive squad since I’ve been on the panel, competition is a great thing, it will always improve the team and the squad so I can’t complain”.
Two points are on the board for Clare after overcoming Waterford but the Inagh/Kilnamona clubman was well aware a lot more needs to be done to ensure a long championship summer. “Every game is going to be tough, no matter where you go, home or away, every team in Munster will be a tough game, we were preparing well for the last few weeks but we were under no illusions as to how difficult it will be to come out of Munster and how the standard is, we will have to keep our heads down and keep putting in performances”.
Cusack Park was the setting when he made his championship bow against Tipperary last year, he chipped in with three points then in a fifty nine minute appearance before being replaced for his clubmate David Fitzgerald.
When it came to his second start in the championship, Seán made sure to grab the opportunity afforded to him. It was only his third appearance of the year in the county colours, his first was as a substitute versus Carlow on February 28th when he scored a point in a twenty minute cameo while he had three points from midfield in his only other start of the year against Wexford.
Injuries curtailed his availability including for the league final against Dublin but Rynne kept his head down as he made his way into the championship first fifteen “I had a few knocks during the year, all you can do is recover as best you can and try get back onto the pitch, I did plenty of running and you just have to put your hard down and work, there’s nothing else to it, the lads were training hard too, I was trying to keep my hurling as sharp as possible”.
An eight point lead with fifty four minutes played had Clare in a commanding position but Waterford were made them sweat till the very end of their first round clash. “Breaks went our way for the first ten minutes of the second half but to be fair to Waterford they never let up, they were always coming back and coming back, we showed good resilience in the end to see it out”.
