Rory O'Connor admits Wexford's heartbreaking All-Ireland SHC semi-final loss to Tipperary taught them a valuable lesson.

Still basking in the warm afterglow of a first Leinster SHC title win since 2004, the Model County were five points up with an extra man entering the closing stages, but Tipp staged a late rally to win before going on to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

“It took us a bit to realise this year that you can hurl as well as you want for 65 minutes, but the game is won in the last five minutes,” the St Martin's man is quoted as saying in the Irish Daily Star.

"I think it was a massive hurdle for us against Kilkenny in the Leinster final, probably the best lesson we took was that we hurled point for point and then it was the first game you'd seen where Wexford saw it out in a convincing way.

"Got their goal, then with seven minutes to go got a point and we kind of saw it out in a mature way that people probably haven't seen Wexford doing in a couple of years.

"Tipperary then is the opposite: hurling great stuff for 60 minutes, or the 58th minute, and next thing outscored by eight points to one, or something like that. We took our lessons from it and it's dead and buried now."

The Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues are back this weekend and so is the Hogan Stand Match Tracker. Join us on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon for live score and updates from the opening rounds.

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