Tipperary debutants impress

ALL-IRELAND SHC QUALIFIERS: Tipperary 3-24 Wexford 0-19 TIPPERARY BROKE no rule despite using six substitutes during Saturday's qualifier against Wexford at Semple Stadium watched by 10,927 spectators. Full back Paul Curran played virtually the entire match after replacing Declan Fanning as a blood substitute after two minutes before Tipperary made five replacements during the second half.

Tipperary County Board secretary Tim Floyd was given assurances by match referee James McGrath and the fourth official that Curran would be classed as a temporary substitute only, giving Tipp licence to use five “full” additional substitutes. At any point, Fanning was eligible to come back on for Curran but he required 25 stitches to his ear injury after a skirmish with Wexford full-forward Stephen Banville, which was captured by TV cameras.

That was just one of a number of incidents which may be looked at by the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC).

Wexford forward Tomás Waters was lucky to stay on the pitch after standing on Conor O’Mahony’s hand in the 44th minute. O’Mahony’s retaliation earned him a yellow card but Waters escaped a second booking, having caught David Young with a high challenge minutes earlier.

Liam Sheedy was reluctant to declare his team “back on track” following this success. The beaten 2009 All-Ireland finalists were satisfied simply to get the job done against poor opposition.

Tipp led by 0-15 to 0-7 at the break and Wexford’s only consolation was they would have the breeze at their backs.

But after Eoin Kelly landed a brace of points within two minutes of the restart, Lar Corbett bagged two goals in a minute.

Tipperary’s new faces did well as right-half back David Young finished man-of-the-match, a display decorated by three points from play. Patrick Maher, the other debutant, bagged two points while Gearóid Ryan hit four on his first championship start.

The only real worry for Tipp was the concession of 0-19 but eight points were conceded in the last 12 minutes when the game was at challenge-match pace.

TIPPERARY:B Cummins; M Cahill, D Fanning, C O'Brien; D Young (0-3), C O'Mahony, Pádraic Maher; B Maher, S McGrath; G Ryan (0-4), S Callanan (0-1), Patrick Maher (0-2); N McGrath (0-3, one free), L Corbett (2-3), E Kelly (0-8, three frees, two 65s). Subs: P Curran for Fanning (2 mins), J O'Brien for Callanan (50 mins), S Hennessy for Kelly (58), D Egan (1-0) for S McGrath (64 mins), S Maher for B Maher (68 mins), M Heffernan for Ryan (70 mins).

WEXFORD:N Carton; P Roche, K Rossiter, C Kenny; R Kehoe, D Stamp (0-1), D Redmond; C Farrell (0-3, one free), H Kehoe (0-3); P Atkinson (0-2, one free, one 65), T Waters, E Quigley; R Jacob (0-3), S Banville (0-2), T Mahon (0-2). Subs: L Prendergast for Quigley (ht), J Berry (0-3, one free) for Atkinson (42 mins), M Jacob for Banville (50 mins), T Dwyer for Redmond (50 mins), B Kenny for Roche (69 mins).

Referee:J McGrath (Westmeath).