2021 Electric Ireland Munster Minor Hurling Championship Quarter-Final – Cork 6-28 Clare 0-6

Cork defeated Clare by 6-28 to 0-6 in the Electric Ireland Munster Minor Hurling Championship Quarter-Final on Wednesday July 14th at Semple Stadium Thurles.

Jack Leahy stars as Cork inflict 40-point hammering on Clare https://t.co/JcpnC6Ar7t

— Irish Examiner Sport (@ExaminerSport) July 14, 2021

Jack Leahy stars as Cork inflict 40-point hammering on Clare

Report by Michael Moynihan for the Irish Examiner newspaper

CORK 6-28 CLARE 0-6

This Munster minor hurling quarter-final barely made it into the second half as a competitive fixture, with Cork dominating Clare totally in Semple Stadium and winning by 40 points in the end.

“We’re very happy, obviously,” said Cork manager Noel Furlong.

“We were looking for a win at the end of the day, the performance was good but in fairness to Clare, they had a lot of injuries and were missing a lot of players coming in, so obviously that went against them. All we could do is look after ourselves, we gave Clare our full respect and we put everything on the table.”

Cork’s ‘everything’ encompassed a dominant centre-back in Ben O’Connor, the hard-running William Buckley, and the lethal Jack Leahy, who hit three goals and posed problems for Clare every time he had the ball. His third goal just after half-time ended the game as a contest.

Banner manager Terence Chaplin agreed that a game can get away from minors very quickly: “Exactly, and to be fair they didn’t do justice to themselves tonight, which is very disappointing. So is the fact that we don’t even have a round robin or anything like that which would give them a second bite at the cherry.

“Anything we’ve asked them to do, they’ve done, our backroom staff have been top class, we’ve gotten everything we asked from the county board – it’s just on the night, when the two goals went in things got away from us totally.”

Cork did plenty of damage in the opening quarter, when Buckley carried the ball to good effect from deep, while Jack Leahy was a constant threat.

In contrast, Clare looked nervous, with their touch betraying them on occasion. They struggled to make the ball stick up front, while Cork picked off six points from range in that opening 15 minutes – Buckley’s long range effort was the pick of them. Clare also needed Adam Enright to come off his line smartly to deny Eoin O’Leary a Cork goal just before the first water-break.

Cork led 0-6 to no score at that point, but Clare responded. Niall O’Farrell opened their account with a 17th-minute free from distance and then James Organ and Conor Whelan (free) added two more: Buckley responded in kind for Cork.

Jack Leahy then soloed through to goal after good approach work by Cork further out the field, making the score 1-7 to 0-3 in Cork’s favour on 23 minutes.

Seconds later the impressive O’Connor soloed through the Clare defence and when the ball eventually broke to Leahy he was able to improvise a second goal.

Clare captain Sean Rynne had the last point of the half but Cork led 2-9 to 0-5 at the break and were well in control.

Within three minutes of the resumption, however, Cork had stretched their legs and eased to a 3-11 to 0-5 lead: Leahy had struck to complete his hat-trick and the game was as good as over.

From there to the end it was a matter of Cork picking off points – and goals, with substitute Adam Walsh collecting two – while Clare also lost Shane Woods to a second yellow card on 47 minutes.

“We were very happy with our preparation coming into the game,” said Furlong.

“Our full focus was on Clare and we were going to give them everything we had. The recent club championship in Cork really stood to us, they’re high intensity games, and we brought all that today. We move on now to the next round (semi-final v Limerick). Cork’s record against Limerick hasn’t been that good in the last few years, but we’ll box off tonight and focus on that now.”

Scorers for Cork: J. Leahy (3-9, 4 frees); W. Buckley (0-5); D. Healy (0-4); A. Walsh (2-0); R. O’Sullivan (1-2); M. Finn, J. Dwyer, T. O’Connell (0-2 each); D. O’Sullivan, B. O’Connor (0-1 each).

Scorers for Clare: N. O’Farrell (0-2, 2fs); S. Rynne, C. Whelan, J. Organ, C. Killeen, (0-1 each).

CORK: P. O’Sullivan (Fr O’Neill’s); D. O’Sullivan (Ballinhassig), K. Lyons (Ballygarvan), J. Byrne (Ballinora); J. Dwyer (Ballincollig, jc), B. O’Connor (St Finbarr’s, jc), T. Wilk (Cobh); M. Finn (Midleton), C. Tobin (Bride Rovers); D. Healy (Lisgoold), B. Nyhan (Clyda Rovers), T. O’Connell (Ballincollig); E. O’Leary (Glen Rovers), J. Leahy (Dungourney), W. Buckley (St Finbarr’s).
Subs: R. O’Sullivan (Na Piarsaigh) for O’Leary (HT); D. Cremin (Midleton) for Nyhan and A. Walsh (Bride Rovers) for Dwyer (both 41); S. Kennedy (St Finbarr’s) for Byrne (45); R. Sheehan (Kanturk) for Buckley (54).

CLARE: A. Enright (Newmarket); R. O’Connor (Feakle), S. Woods (Inagh/Kilnamona), J. Cahill (Clooney Quin); D. Stritch (Clonlara), T. Leyden (Tulla), R. Wynne (Inagh/Kilnamona); J. O Neill (Clooney Quin), N. O’Farrell (Broadford ); J. Organ (Corofin), C. Killeen (Kilmaley), J. Doherty (Clarecastle); C. Whelan (Whitegate), C. Hassett (Clooney Quin), S. Rynne (Inagh/Kilnamona)(c).
Subs: O. Whelan (Clarecastle) for Organ and F. Hayes (Sixmilebridge) for Whelan (both 35); E. Mexted (Clooney Quin) for O’Connor (39); M. Heneghan (Eire Og Inis) for Hassett, S. Crosbie for Leyden (both 50).

Referee: N. Barry (Waterford).

Live Match Streaming

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Team News

Cork Minor Hurling team to play Clare has been announced https://t.co/9a4bJxbHWR pic.twitter.com/TEb9iNVxkD

— Cork GAA (@OfficialCorkGAA) July 13, 2021

Cork (Munster MHC v Clare): P O’Sullivan (Fr O’Neill’s); D O’Sullivan (Ballinhassig), K Lyons (Ballygarvan), J Byrne (Ballinora); J Dwyer (Ballincollig), B O’Connor (St Finbarr’s), T Wilk (Cobh); M Finn (Midleton), C Tobin (Bride Rovers); D Healy (Lisgoold), B Nyhan (Clyda Rovers), T O’Connell (Ballincollig); E O’Leary (Glen Rovers), J Leahy (Dungourney), W Buckley (St Finbarr’s).

Clare Minor Hurling team to play Cork in Semple Stadium tomorrow evening @ 7:30p.mhttps://t.co/Wjy7r7pFJU

— Clare Gaa (@GaaClare) July 13, 2021

Clare (Munster MHC v Cork): A Enright (Newmarket); R O’Connor (Feakle), S Woods (Inagh/Kilnamona), J Cahill (Clooney Quin); D Stritch (Clonlara), T Leyden (Tulla), R Wynne (Inagh/Kilnamona); J O Neill (Clooney Quin), N O’Farrell (Broadford ); J Organ (Corofin), C Killeen (Kilmaley), J Doherty (Clarecastle); C Whelan (Whitegate), C Hassett (Clooney Quin), S Rynne (Inagh/Kilnamona).

Online Team Sheet

Click here to view the team sheet for Cork v Clare in PDF Format