Carlow hurling manager Kevin Ryan has warned his players that Kerry are very much the team to beat in this year's Ring Cup. Holders Carlow entertain the Kingdom at the semi-final stage in Dr Cullen Park on Saturday afternoon, and Ryan is at pains to stress that the Kerrymen will be anything but pushovers: "I'd be worried that a lot of the talk seems to be about Mayo, of how Carlow were lucky to beat them in the semi-final last year and now that Mayo have hammered Westmeath, that Mayo are the team to beat. "The team to beat, as far as I am concerned, are our next opponents - and that's Kerry in Dr Cullen Park next Saturday. "And in the middle of all the talk about Mayo - and that Westmeath result was impressive - people seem to have forgotten that Kerry beat Mayo in the first round of the Christy Ring. "If you study Kerry's league results, even though they lost all their games, they put up some very good performances, particularly towards the end of the campaign, going to Belfast and scoring 4-14 against Antrim." Tweet

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