National Hurling League Division One/ Tipperary 3-16 Galway 0-17: Three goals in the opening half hour paved the way for Tipperary's success at Pearse Stadium yesterday, but they made heavy work of seeing off the Galway challenge in the second half when they had the wind at their backs.
The Galway defence tightened after the restart but by then the damage was done with Mark O'Leary grabbing two goals and Michael Webster another.
Galway will draw comfort from the way they rallied in the second half but, as the championship draws nearer, they seem far from a settled side and they will be particularly concerned by their forwards yesterday.
Tipperary, though, would have been in serious trouble without the goals and 13 second-half wides should be a cause for concern for them.
They led from start to finish, with less than a minute gone on the clock with O'Leary pouncing for his first goal after Liam Donoghue had done well to block Colin Morrissey's effort.
Three points were quickly added with the result that they had a 1-3 cushion by the time Ger Farragher opened Galway's account with a free after 11 minutes.
However, Galway laboured for scores with centre back Eamonn Corcoran marshalling the Tipperary defence, but two points in a minute from David Collins and David Forde brought the score to 1-6 to 0-6 by the 24th minute.
However, the Galway defence, which did not look comfortable as a unit, was cracked wide open with Tipperary striking for two goals in as many minutes.
Full forward Webster got the first of them after 27 minutes when he grabbed a long delivery from Declan Fanning to shoot into the bottom right corner.
Then Benny Dunne soloed through the Galway rearguard with O'Leary again on hand to supply the finish and push Ken Hogan's Tipperary men 3-6 to 0-7 in front.
The Galway response was admirable with points from Farragher, Collins, Eugene Cloonan and Damien Hayes reducing the deficit to five points by half-time.
A point from Eoin Kelly 14 seconds after the restart suggested they were going to pull away, but they only managed two more points in the subsequent 29 minutes.
Galway, with Richie Murray and David Collins on top in a midfield area where the marking was slack on both sides, hit four points without reply with Murray striking two and Cloonan and Farragher both adding frees.
They badly needed a goal to give real substance to their comeback but they struggled to prise open an unyielding Tipperary defence.
The same couldn't be said of their attack which wasted chance after chance, but Kelly settled their nerves with two frees for them to lead 3-10 to 0-15 going into the final quarter.
A point from David Donoghue and another long-range effort from Murray reduced the margin to two points with 11 minutes remaining.
However, Galway were not to score again as Tipperary, who seemed to visibly tire significantly in the second half, reinvigorated themselves for the closing period as they shot six points without reply in the final six minutes.
Two of them came from a sideline cut, 60 yards out on the right, by Kelly as he became the first Tipperary hurler to land such a double score.
However, other than that, this encounter is unlikely to feature prominently in the annals of their history.
TIPPERARY: B Cummins; P Curran, P Maher, H Moloney; D Fanning, E Corcoran, D Fitzgerald; B Dunne (0-1), P Morrissey; M O'Leary (2-0), C Morrissey, J Devane (0-2); E Kelly (0-10, six frees, 0-2 sideline), M Webster (1-0), P O'Brien (0-1). Subs: T Dunne (0-1) for P Morrissey (44 mins), D Egan for Webster (59 mins), F Devanney (0-1) for O'Brien (66 mins).
GALWAY: L Donoghue; D Joyce, L Hodgins, C Coen; D Hardiman, T Regan, O Canning; D Collins (0-2), R Murray (0-4); E Cloonan (0-2, one free), D Forde (0-1), K Hayes (0-1); D Hayes (0-1), G Farragher (0-5, frees), K Broderick. Subs: D Hayes for Hardiman (42 mins), D Tierney for Broderick (42 mins), D Donoghue (0-1) for Farragher (53 mins), S Kavanagh for Joyce (66 mins).
Referee: D Murphy (Wexford).
