A stirring Kilkenny fightback gave the Cats a hard fought 2-17 to 0-18 over old rivals Tipperary at Nowlan Park in Division 1A of the Allianz Hurling League.
A brace of late goals from Kevin Kelly proved to be decisive for Brian Cody’s men and former Clare captain Anthony Daly believes the win was down to the hard work that Kilkenny put in on the pitch.
"It was on the back of a real war of attrition with Waterford that they came out on the wrong end of last week. They needed a massive performance and they delivered in spades," he said.
"New guys, the guys that are there for a long time, they just came up with the goods yet again and it was much the same format – work, work, work – and the breaks came."
For former Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins it was an all too familiar scenario and he explained just how tough Kilkenny make it for their opponents.
"The big problem is that we’re getting used to it at this stage," he said.
"It’s the same old story, I’ve been down in goal myself playing, you think ‘God we’re going really here against Kilkenny’, you seem to be on top and they you look at the scoreboard and you’re only two points clear."
Cummins believes that Tipperary may have to come up with a specific gameplan to counter Kilkenny next time the two sides meet.
"A more telling stat today for Mick Ryan and his team was that, against Dublin 56% of the ball they went in for, they won.
"Today it was only 27%, so Tipperary are going to have to come up with a way of getting the ball a little bit shorter or they have to go into the trenches and train to win their own ball."
