Heroic Templederry Kenyons just fall short as Holycross Ballycahill sneak into last eight

FBD Insurance Senior Hurling Championship - Group 3 - Round 3

Templederry Kenyons 1-27

Holycross Ballycahill 1-23

Templederry Kenyons produced a fantastic hour of hurling in the final round of Group 4 fare on Sunday evening, as they had too much firepower for Holycross Ballycahill in a game that had endless drama right up to the final whistle.

With the clock ticking down there was utter confusion around the grounds - and most likely across the county - as everyone was trying to work out the permutations of the group with three teams level on points at the end of play.

Both sets of players didn’t know whether to celebrate or cry, but it turned out that Darragh Woods late scores to reduce the gap to four points were critical as it just about meant that Holycross qualified for the quarter-finals in second place, while Templederry managed to avoid relegation but will be so dejected that they came so close to pulling off the perfect result.

Playing with the aid of the very strong wind present in Borris-Ileigh, Templederry would have needed to stack up a nice cushion to bring in at the break, but the opening quarter was fair; Templederry starting quickly through a point from Adrian Ryan and a class sideline cut from Odhran Murphy inside two minutes.

Ben Hennessy and Eoin Craddock hit a pair of solid individual scores in as many minutes thereafter and very nearly rattled the back of the net in the 5th minute when Luke O’Mara powered past the Templederry cover and struck a powerful effort toward goal, but it was too central and Tim McCutcheon managed to bat it to safety.

Templederry were deploying Brian Stapleton deep in order to protect a defence which has been leaking scores this year, and it was working earlier on and didn’t take away from their punch up top as they took a 0-5 to 0-4 lead by the tenth minute as Gearoid Ryan, Colm Murray, and a first for Sean Ryan seen them ahead.

Cathal Barrett and Darragh Woods were looking threatening for Holycross at the other end and the former popped up with two scores either side of a second Darragh Woods free to cut the gap to one, but the strong breeze was being used to good effect by the Kenyons as they fired over four points from play in less than 90 seconds around the 16 minute mark from Colm Murray, Padraig O’Leary and second points from Sean and Gearoid Ryan.

Darragh Woods was starting to get into the game more and more for Holycross though and he had the deficit back down to a single point with two points in a row around the 20th minute, but they would be their last scores of the half as the men in maroon took control of the final ten minutes, notching six points in a row with the pick of them coming from Sean Ryan who snapped a huge high ball and somehow floated over his third in traffic.

Seven points the difference at the break at 0-15 to 0-8 with Holycross set to avail of the strong wind in the second period.
Holycross needed to get going quickly in the second half to try and unsettle Templederry as the north Tipperary team were comfortable in the opening half, and they did just that as Darragh Woods had 1-1 from play put up in less than three minutes; the goal coming from good link up play between Ben Hennessy and Joe Caesar, and despite an over-hit pass to Woods of goals, the former Tipperary underage player controlled well before burying a shot past Tim McCutcheon.

Colm Murray responded quickly with a close range free but Holycross were a different team early on in the half and points from Cathal Barrett and Luke O’Mara had Holycross to within two points at 0-16 to 1-11 as early as the 35th minute.

Templederry needed to settle down and try and hit a few scores to settle themselves again, and they started to do that soon after with Adrian Ryan floating over an important point to end the Holycross scoring run in the 36th minute, and from here the sides began to trade scores with regularity, but a big blow came for Templederry in the 46th minute when Brian Stapleton received a second yellow card for a late tackle on Cathal Barrett which gave Holycross added impetus late in the game.

Darragh Woods was going to town by this stage as he couldn’t be curtailed by the Templederry defence and would score another two points from play by the 40th minute, but the Kenyons had a far greater spread of scorers and they had pushed their lead out to four points at the three quarter mark of the game with Sean and Gearoid Ryan proving troublesome again.

Both teams had the rebuttals to every score conceded but the introduction of David Fogarty for Holycross gave them an extra push forward, with Fogarty hitting two points quickly as Darragh Woods continued to prove accurate with two more points from placed balls as the game tightened up to just a single point difference. Kenyons ahead 0-25 to 1-21 with five minutes of normal time left.

By this stage, all of Upperchurch, Holycross, and Templederry were in with a very realistic chance of clinching second place, and a big moment came in the third minute of added time when Adrian Ryan found Colm Murray with a beautiful pass, and the younger Murray did very well to field the ball in the 14-yard line but was hauled down by a Holycross defender for a penalty.

Éanna Murray had a huge opportunity to give Templederry a healthy lead and he made no mistake to rifle the ball low past Bourke in the goals, and he followed that up from the resulting puckout after a turnover with a composed strike to point from the 45 and send Templederry into a big five-point lead.

Holycross seemed to be heading out but to their credit, they stayed going and under instruction from the sideline, they went to drag back the scoring difference and it was that man again, Darragh Woods, who stood up to point to peaches from play either side of a Colm Murray free and a loss of 1-27 to 1-23 for the mid men was enough for them to just clinch second spot by the skin of their teeth after a scramble for the finished table in the aftermath of the final whistle.

Templederry Kenyons: Tim McCutcheon; Pio Kennedy, Christy Coughlan, Dale Donnelly; Brian Stapleton, Tom Stapleton, Darragh Carey; Odhran Murphy (0-2, 0-1 s-cut), Mikey Ryan (0-1); Gearoid Ryan (0-3), Adrian Ryan (0-3), Éanna Murray (1-1, 1-0 pen); Padraig O’Leary (0-1), Sean Ryan (0-5), Colm Murray (0-11, 0-10f).

Subs used: Liam McCutcheon for Kennedy (53).

Holycross Ballycahill: Ewan Bourke (0-1f); Jack Ryan, Conor Ryan, Jimmy Ryan; Mickey Joe Doyle, Bryan O’Mara, Jim Ryan (0-1); Eoin Craddock (0-1), Shane Ryan; Ben Hennessy (0-1), Joe Caesar, Cathal Barrett (0-3); Darragh Woods (1-13, 0-7f), Aidan Stakelum, Luke O’Mara (0-1).

Subs used: Tadhg Gould for S Ryan (HT); David Fogarty (0-2) for L O’Mara (37); Gavin Dunne for Doyle (43); Jimmie Lahart for Stakelum (57); Jack Dwan for Hennessy (62, inj).

Referee: Seanie Everard (Moyne Templetuohy)