Tipperary 1-23
Dublin 0-12
Derek Ryan at Semple Stadium
Dublin suffered a disappointing opening day defeat in the Allianz Hurling League this evening.
The Boys in Blue went down to Tipperary by 14 points in poor conditions in Thurles.
Ger Cunningham’s men, without suspended captain Liam Rushe, struggled to get a foothold in the game, with a very poor first half in particular seeing them go in 1-9 to 0-3 down at the break.
Tipp completely dominated the opening half and could have registered a goal inside the opening minute, but John McGrath’s shot was well saved by Conor Dooley in the Dublin goal.
Dooley could do nothing to keep out Jason Forde in the 12th minute, however. He raced clear and slammed the ball low into the net to set Tipp on their way.
Forde impressed with 1-3 in the opening half, adding a further two points in the second half, while Dublin struggled to create much in attack.
Paul Ryan missed some scorable frees in the first half, only pointing one free before being withdrawn at the break, while Dublin could only muster long range scores from Dotsy O’Callaghan and Daire Plunkett in the opening 35 minutes.
Dublin improved in the second half – and reduced the gap to 7 points with 20 minutes to go, thanks to scores from Niall McMorrow, Mark Schutte, Colm Cronin, David Treacy and Darragh O’Connell, as an unlikely comeback looked possible.
However, that was as close as Dublin got, as Tipp rattled off 6 unanswered points midway through the half to pull clear.
Tipp brought John “Bubbles” O’Dwyer off the bench late on- and he popped over three impressive points to help the Premier County to a comfortable 1-23 to 0-12 victory.
Next up for Dublin is a meeting with Galway at Parnell Park next weekend.
