There were many parallels between the performances of the Irish rugby team and the Ballygunner hurlers last weekend. In both games we had a team of some quality losing its concentration, fumbling and foostering, arriving second to the loose ball and unable to pass or tackle. And in both games a sharp and focused opposition grabbed the opportunity and surged to an unexpectedly one-sided victory.

Ballygunner’s eventual disintegration was most surprising, not just because of the quality of their earlier performances in the competition and the experience of most of their players, but also because they made a very good start to the game, and were right in it until ten minutes after half-time. They were quite sharp early on, and despite struggling a bit against a very strong wind and an alert Clarinbridge defence, created enough chances to be on level terms at the interval. However, a string of bad misses by Billy O’Sullivan, Paul Flynn and Paul Power was probably a portent to the temperamental fragility which was to engulf the Gunners in the second half.

Despite two good points from Tony Carroll and Paul Foley immediately after the restart, the Ballygunner fumble count began to mount, with Paul Power, Andy Moloney, Paul Foley and Tom Fives all failing to control the ball in the first five minutes of the second half. However, there is no doubt that the decisive turning point in the game was the sending off of Gerry Spellman after 37 minutes. Many observers have marvelled at how often victory goes to teams which are a man short. One obvious explanation is that the team which loses a man raises its game while the other team may tend to relax a little. Another factor is how the team with the extra man make use of that man.

An Moltóir has long been of the view that hurling teams with an extra man should simply retain their normal formation and hurl away, on the grounds that to do otherwise would be to disrupt their normal pattern of play. Last Sunday, Ballygunner lost their shape completely after Spellman was dismissed, and for much of the last twenty minutes it was Clarinbridge who seemed to have more men on the pitch. Things got worse for the Waterford men as panic began to set in as the game proceeded and they lost all semblance of pattern and coolness in their play.

All in all, An Moltóir counted 25 instances during the course of the game of Ballygunner players fumbling or failing to lift the ball. Seventeen of these occurred in the 23 minutes after Spellman was red-carded. In the space of one minute (the 49th), Tony Carroll gave a terrible cross-field ball to a Clarinbridge player; the latter’s puck went to Fergal Hartley who fumbled, then handpassed to Rory O’Sullivan who also fumbled. The ball came through to Alan Kirwan who fresh-aired his first attempted clearance and then fumbled his subsequent effort at lifting the ball. Eventually Mick Mahoney gained possession but proceeded to mishit his attempted clearance straight to an opponent. Hardly the stuff of would-be champions!

However, all credit to Clarinbridge who hunted in packs, drove into the ball and won virtually every 50/50 contest in that last 20 minutes. Overall the Galway men were well drilled and completely focused. One observer remarked that they came to Thurles to win, whereas Ballygunner thought they had the game won before they arrived. Just as they did in the Galway final, the young Clarinbridge team remained cool even when some things went against them (especially a sequence of bad wides midway through the second half). They were always playing the ball into space and trying to change the direction of play, and used the handpass very well to get out of trouble or find better-placed team-mates. By contrast, Ballygunner’s teamwork was poor (particularly in attack) and they became obsessed with pumping high balls into the Clarinbridge goalmouth, despite the diminutive size of two of their full forwards.

Clarinbridge also won the game on the sideline hands down. When Stephen Frampton won the first three contests for the ball, his opposite number Alan Kerins was immediately switched into full forward where he helped himself to a goal and two points. But the real master stroke was to move Kerins to defence after Spellman was sent off. Apart from his powerful surges and clearances, Kerins played a key role receiving short clearances from the goalkeeper and full backs and dispatching the ball up the field.

Ballygunner, by contrast, made no attempt to shore up their midfield, which went completely missing in the second half. Nominating Stephen Frampton to be the loose extra man made no sense at all. Apart from his lack of mobility, Frampton is probably Ballygunner’s best ball winner in one-to-one situations. The obvious move would have been to place him at centre-back (where Fergal Hartley was finding it difficult to win clean possession against Mark Kerins), shift Hartley to midfield and employ Colin Kehoe as the loose man. The decision to replace Paul Foley also made little sense, as he was the only Ballygunner forward apart from Paul Flynn who presented a scoring threat. Clearly he was held to blame for not doing something with the impossible high balls which were rained in on the Clarinbridge goal in the second half.

So fair play to John McIntyre and his charges. Clearly their win over Athenry was not a fortuitous fluke, and they will look forward to continuing Galway’s domination of this particular competition. They will now go into the final as favourites. Birr had to work very hard to overcome what seemed, from the TG4 highlights, quite a good Dunloy side. As one of their players observed, a team like Dunloy, no matter how good they are playing, need some good fortune if they are to win against the big guns. Last Sunday it was Birr who got the breaks. Nevethless, the Offaly side does possess some awesome talent. If they click, it could be a wonderful final in Thurles on March 17th.

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