Roscrea turn their eyes on Munster

GAA: AIB Munster Club Intermediate Hurling Championship Quarter Final Preview

Roscrea v Ballysaggart

FBD Semple Stadium

Sunday 6th November

Throw-in @ 1.30pm (E.T. & Res)

Referee: Simon Stokes (Cork)

By Shane Brophy

Roscrea are targeting provincial and All-Ireland Club glory as the county premier intermediate champions get set to represent Tipperary in the Munster Intermediate Championship on Sunday.

The rebranding of the O Riain Cup to the premier intermediate championship in the county this year means the Tipp second-tier champions can now go onto play in Munster, with now the seventeenth best team in Tipperary representing the county, rather than the 33rd which the intermediate champion were in recent years.

Being the first All-Ireland senior club champions in 1971, Roscrea’s pedigree outside of the county will ensure they take this opportunity seriously, and speaking following their county final win over Gortnahoe/Glengoole, manager Liam England said they will give it a go.

“I have to admit we planned for this from the start,” he said.

“This is our sixth step. It will take a tenth step to get to Croker. That’s it. That was our goal at the start of the year. We are facing Ballysaggart in two weeks’ time, but we are doing our best to get to Croker.”

It helps that England was manager of the Moyne-Templetuohy team that competed in the Munster intermediate championship last year but fell at the first hurdle to Kerry senior champions Kilmoyley, who went all the way to the All-Ireland final before falling to Naas of Kildare.

England will now be fully aware what is needed to compete outside of the county and having home advantage of Semple Stadium will be a help.

Also, they will be match sharp as they will be taking on a Ballysaggart side who aren’t the Waterford champions as they were beaten in the county final by Ballygunner’s second team.

That game was played eight weeks ago and on top of that, Ballysaggart will be without Waterford senior Kieran Bennett who has left for Australia. However, they will have inter-county stars Shane & Stephen Bennett in their line-up, plus they have pedigree in the Munster Club Championship having won the junior championship in 2013, beating Knockshegowna on route, plus they reached the intermediate final in 2019, losing to Fr O’Neill’s of Cork.