Colin Fennelly has given a good insight into how Kilkenny raised their intensity levels to beat Waterford at the second time of asking.

Man of the Match Fennelly epitomised the determnation and ferocious battling of Brian Cody's charges as they recorded a terrific semi-final replay victory over their neighbours on Saturday. He admits the Black & Amber had to take a long hard look at themselves after thee drawn game:

"There were big tackles and lads getting the flicks in, Waterford were doing that the last day, they put us back on your back. We really did have to look at the game, it was a horrible thing to look back over it on the Monday and Tuesday but we had to do it," the Ballyhale Shamrocks man told The Irish Independent.

"It wasn't great seeing Waterford throwing us all over the place but you have to face facts and they did. You have to look at your own performance and say 'Is that me? Is that what I've been training for all year?' And it's not, like.

"You have to look back at the game and when you're getting the ball you're looking up and you're walking around the place - you have to be going like the hammers of hell, because if you don't move they'll have three men on you and they'll squeeze, and that's what they did the last day.

"If we laid down and let them walk all over us then the towel was thrown in, but the towel wasn't thrown in and we got a second chance to look back at ourselves and the 17 or 18 of us that were out there put in our best performance.

"Character is what this team is about and we didn't slack back. We lapsed a bit in some other games and especially the last day - Waterford were all over us and that had to change."

Tweet

Most Read Stories