Sarsfields squeeze into All-Ireland final against wasteful opponents

Sarsfields 0-10

Burgess-Duharra 0-9

SARSFIELDS showed their resilience again last Sunday to book their place in the All-Ireland senior club camogie final. Rachel Murray’s winner brought the east Galway outfit back to Croke Park where’ll they face a rematch against reigning champions Slaughtneil, who overcame Thomastown after extra time in the other semi-final.

Much of the build up centered on Sarsfields’ stunning performance against Mullagh, but it shouldn’t be forgotten they had to dig deep when they edged past St. Thomas in the county semi-final. And when required again, Michael ‘Hopper’ McGrath’s charges found a way to regain control.

Having not played in over three months, it was difficult for both teams to gauge where they stood, but it looked like Sarsfields were ready to repeat their county final heroics when they took a two-point advantage inside three minutes.

Niamh McGrath tallied both placed balls but they went an 18-minute spell afterwards without raising a white flag. Even though Sarsfields had the wind, they struggled to find a way past an eight-person defence as the Tipperary side closed down the channels quickly and applied serious pressure.

Jenny Grace was their go-to person and she opened their account after six minutes before levelling soon afterwards. Indeed, frees were a common theme as referee Eamon Cassidy blew 48 times over the hour and handed out five yellow cards. It was a stop-start encounter as both teams tried to gain momentum.

Burgess-Duharra were in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final only losing to Slaughtneil by two points and wanted to maintain Tipperary’s strong club record against Galway. A Munster representative triumphed in the last four of such meetings and Grace added three more points to make it 0-5 to 0-2 by the quarter hour.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.