Inter-provincial Senior Hurling Championship semi-final: Ulster v Munster (tomorrow, 1.45pm, Semple Stadium)
ULSTER’S players should have nothing to fear when they travel to Semple Stadium tomorrow, despite coming up against a Munster side littered with Allstars and All-Ireland winners.
That is the message from Eoghan Campbell as he prepares for his first inter-provincial championship, the Cushendall ace one of 10 Antrim men in Terence McNaughton’s 23-strong panel.
Munster have called upon nine of the Tipperary team that brought the Liam MacCarthy Cup back to the Premier County in September, as well as Waterford’s player and young player of the year Austin Gleeson.
They represent formidable opposition, but it’s not every day that the Ulster players get to rub shoulders with the cream of the crop and, according to Campbell, it is a game they should be looking forward to.
“Training with Antrim, we’ve been doing a lot of running so it’ll be nice to get a hurl in the hand,” said the 22-year-old.
“You’re playing near enough the best 15 in Ireland but for the boys up here who don’t get to play against those kinds of teams and those players every week, it’s a good chance to see what they’re actually like on the field.
“I’ve never played against most of these players. You’re watching the likes of the Tipp boys in the All-Ireland final back in September and now you’re going down to play against them. It’ll be a good learning experience.
“On any given day, you could have a better game than any of them. Austin Gleeson, Padraic Maher and guys like that are playing, but some of our boys might have a better game than they will.
“There’s no point going down there and not giving it a go.”
One thing they will be mindful of is avoiding a repeat of the heavy defeat suffered at the hands of Leinster in 2014.
With last year’s inter-provincial championships cancelled, the last time the Ulster hurling collective took the field they lost 8-18 to 1-21 in Trim.
They faced Munster the previous year, with 12 points separating the provinces that day, and Campbell believes there is an onus on Ulster to play to their own strengths.
“You don’t want to go down there and get embarrassed, but there comes a stage when you have to score points as well. You can’t just sit back all the time, you have to take a bit of a risk as well,” added Campbell.
“We have some great forwards as well, the likes of Ciaran Clark and Ciaran Johnston. If you get the ball to boys like that they’ll do damage.
“Hopefully it will be free-flowing, you don’t want it to be an oul dogfight in the middle of December You’d rather go down and play a bit of hurling.”
Never mind being embarrassed, Munster boss Anthony Daly has an embarrassment of riches at his disposal in a panel packed with talent.
Tipperary’s Brendan Maher will captain the star-studded side and Daly insists that, despite dealing with players who have already achieved so much at the top level, the desire is still there to win the inter-provincial championships.
“We’ve a strong enough squad, and we’re looking to pick a 16 you are a bit excited about the names in front of you,” said Daly, who captained Clare to All-Ireland titles in 1995 and ’97.
“There isn’t time for seven or eight weeks training, but the lads have been great. Talk about going at it for an hour and 10 minutes with Tommy Dunne, John Mullane myself, really tearing into it.
“The players unquestionably like playing it and are very honoured to play for Munster and at the weekend we’ll be asking them for absolutely 100 per cent.”
Ulster: N McAuley, S McCrory, C O’Connell, N McKenna, P Burke, E Campbell, C Clark, C Johnston, C Johnston, J Dillon (Antrim); J Corvan, C Devlin, S Renaghan, C Corvan (Armagh); A Grant, O McCloskey (Derry); J McManus, C Taggart, D Toner, C Woods, S Keith, C O’Prey (Down); D Cullen (Donegal)
Munster: C Dillon, D Reidy, A Shanagher (Clare); A Nash (Cork); T Murnane (Kerry); D Byrnes, T Condon, S Dowling, C Lynch, B Nash (Limerick); J Barry, M Breen, S Callanan, D Gleeson, B Maher, P Maher, D McCormack, N McGrath, J O’Dwyer (Tipperary); J Barron, S Bennett, S Bennett, N Connors, B Coughlan, S Fives, A Gleeson, P Mahony (Waterford)
