A first championship victory in over 20 months proved worth waiting for as Tipperary blitzed hosts Clare with five timely goals to ignite their provincial campaign in Ennis.
In a bizarre opening-round tie that saw Tipperary soar ten clear later in the first period and nine ahead entering the final few minutes of the latter, a character-filled Clare kept up the fight until the bitter end but simply made far too many major errors.
Three fortuitous first-half goals were gladly welcomed by the visitors in front of a 17,971 crowd.
Jason Forde's lineball from 45 metres managed to nestle into the left corner of the net in only the third minute. Jake Morris dispossessed debutant goalkeeper Eamonn Foudy for the second at the midway mark while an intercepted short puck-out teed up Morris for his second only five minutes later to power the Premier 3-07 to 0-07 clear.
Remarkably, Clare managed to bounce back off the ropes before the break as Tony Kelly was instrumental in setting up Mark Rodgers for a brace of goals in as many minutes to slash the half-time arrears to just four with the wind advantage to come.
With the returning Aidan McCarthy leading the line superbly for the hosts, they had just lowered the deficit to three when sunk by a further sucker-punch six minutes into the second half, this time a double blow as David McInerney's foul on the raiding Jake Morris earned a black card and a penalty which Jason Forde cooly dispatched to the net at 4-13 to 2-13.
It was a detrimental setback, only accentuated when Tipperary substitute Sean Ryan raided for a fifth goal with his first touch of the game in the 63rd minute to seal victory for Liam Cahill’s rampant side at 5-17 to 2-18.
Clare did grab a goal deep into injury-time, inevitably through McCarthy, but it was merely a consolation as Liam Cahill’s side couldn’t have asked for a better morale-boosting start to their provincial campaign ahead of a fortnight’s break until facing Cork on away soil.
In contrast, with no room left for error, Clare are pitted against perennial Munster and All-Ireland champions Limerick in what is a must-win Shannonside derby in the TUS Gaelic Grounds on Saturday.
Clare: Eamonn Foudy; Adam Hogan, Conor Cleary, Paul Flanagan; David McInerney, John Conlon (0-01), Diarmuid Ryan (0-01); Cathal Malone, Ryan Taylor (0-02); Shane O’Donnell, Aidan McCarthy (1-13, 7f, 2 ’65), Peter Duggan; Ian Galvin (0-02), Tony Kelly (0-01), Mark Rodgers (2-00).
Subs: Rory Hayes for Hogan (44), Shane Meehan (0-02) for Galvin (51), Aron Shanagher for Rodgers (62), Robin Mounsey (0-01) for Taylor (67), Jack Kirwan for Duggan (71).
Tipperary: Barry Hogan; Michael Breen, Cathal Barrett, Johnny Ryan; Brian McGrath (0-01), Ronan Maher, Bryan O’Mara; Dan McCormack, Alan Tynan (0-01); Seamus Kennedy (0-01), Noel McGrath (0-03), Gearoid O’Connor (0-02); Jake Morris (2-04), John McGrath (0-01), Jason Forde (2-06, 1-00pen, 5f, 1-01s/l).
Subs: Conor Stakelum for Tynan (45), Mark Kehoe (0-01) for J McGrath (58), Sean Ryan (1-01) for O’Connor (63), Conor Bowe (0-01) for N McGrath (71), Enda Heffernan for B. McGrath (73).
Referee: Thomas Walsh (Waterford).
