Tipperary selector Michael Ryan agrees that it is now in the interest of defenders to concede penalties in hurling.

Since Central Council clarified that the ball could not be struck from closer than 20 metres from a penalty, it has become increasingly difficult for penalty-takers to find the net. The last seven penalties in this year's SHC have all been missed, including both Tipp efforts on Sunday - from Seamus Callanan in the first half and John O'Dwyer in the second half.

Ultimately, it was in Kilkenny's interest to foul the Tipp attackers as they bore down on goal...

"I had exactly those thoughts when I watched the highlights on 'The Sunday Game' and the implication is that it is nearly safer to foul," Ryan suggests in The Irish Independent.

"That is not right. That is not the spirit or the intent of a penalty. The intent of a penalty is not that it should be a better option for the backs to pull down a player who is bearing down on goal.

"I don't know what they are going to do but it has changed everything. We weren't entirely happy with what was known as the "Nash penalty" because that was borderline. You can take out borderline, that was dangerous stuff.

"Now we need to find a middle ground but that is not for today. And, yeah, we got nothing, we got zero out of two penalties.

"The rules are the rules. They're the same for both sides. Isn't it funny, we tried to correct what was an anomaly earlier on this year and we've probably made it slightly worse.

"But if that's all that's wrong with hurling, there's very little wrong."

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