Tipperary defeated Laois by 1-31 to 0-17 in a Senior Hurling Challenge on Sunday afternoon in Dr. Morris Park Thurles.
On a windy, wet day in Thurles, Laois had the aid of the strong wind in the first half and raced in to a 0-9 to 0-2 lead at the end of the first quarter. Tipperary steadied the ship somewhat in the second quarter but still trailed at the interval by 0-14 to 0-6.
The second half was all one way traffic for a much changed Tipperary (13 half time changes) as they dominated from an early stage. Eight unanswered points saw Tipperary draw level by the 47th minutes before a good catch and pass by Conor Kenny helped set up John McGrath for the games only goal in the 51st minutes. Laois did recover to score three unanswered points midway through the second half but the last ten minutes saw Tipperary score at will to complete a 17 point victory, 1-31 to 0-17.
PJ Scully with 7 points was the top scorer for Laois while second half subs Liam and John McGrath accounted for 1-9 of Tipperary’s 1-25 second half total.
Tipperary: Darren Gleeson; Joe O’Dwyer, Tossie Hamill, Michael Cahill; Willie Ryan, Barry Heffernan, Liam Ryan; Noel McGrath, Michael Breen; Dan McCormack (0-1), Patrick Maher, Sean Ryan; Kieran Morris (0-2 frees), Conor Kenny (0-1), John O’Dwyer (0-3 frees)
Subs: Darragh Mooney, Cathal Barrett, James Barry, Conor O’Brien, Brendan Maher (0-5, 0-4 frees), Joe Gallagher, Padraic Maher, Daire Quinn (0-1), Dylan Fitzelle (0-3), Andrew Coffey (0-3), Jason Forde (0-3), Sean Curran, Liam McGrath (0-6, 0-2 frees), John McGrath (1-3), Brian Hogan
