Galway edge out Dubs in AIG Fenway Classic

GALWAY 50 DUBLIN 47

A storming start to the last quarter saw Galway edge out the Dubs in Sunday's AIG Fenway Hurling Classic in Boston's Fenway Park..

The Tribesmen came from five points behind in the final quarter to win by three before a crowd in excess of 25,000 in one of America’s oldest and most iconic sporting venues.

They got value for money with a lively game and they really found their voices when the teams clashed in the second quarter.

Fenway Park holds 37,000 when hosting the Boston Red Sox baseball franchise but the capacity was reduced to 31,000 in order to accommodate this game.

It was played on an American football pitch used on Saturday night for the Notre Dame-Boston College clash, which was part of a weekend-long festival of Irish themed sport in this Irish-American city.

This was the second AIG classic, the first having been played on Notre Dame’s Indiana campus two years ago.

Galway led at the first turn-around thanks to a three-pointer from Conor Whelan and four points from Brian Molloy.

Goals scored inside the 20 metre exclusion zone are worth three points, outside of that it’s four and a goal scored on the volley is worth an extra point no matter where it’s hit from.

The game is divided into four 15-minute quarters with unlimited substitutions. Yellow cards result in a two-minute cooling off spell in the sin bin and frees are taken on a tap-and-go basis.

Instead of a ’65’ teams get a short corner and in the second quarter Brian Molloy converted one brilliantly on the volley for the Tribesmen to help them cut their half-time deficit to four points, 24-20, having at one stage trailed by seven.

Three quarters of the way through Dublin led by 36 to 31, setting up the final 15 minutes nicely.

Galway went up through the gears with Conor Whelan taking his personal tally to 12 points and Jason Flynn racking up 18 points for the day, the game’s top scorer.

They led by six in the closing stages before a Fiontan McGibb goal for the Dubs cut the gap to three and the eventual winners had goalkeeper James Skehill to thank for a brilliant stop right at the death.

DUBLIN: G Maguire; S Barrett, L Rushe J Boland; C Crummy, E Dillon (17pts); N McMorrow (5pts), C Boland; O O’Rorke, D O’Callaghan (3pts), P Ryan. INTERCHANGE: C Bennett, C Dooley, J Madden, S Lambert, J McCaffrey (3pts), A Nolan, R McBride, C McBride (3pts), C Mac Gabhan, E O’Donnell, B Quinn, F McGibb (10pts), D Sutcliffe (6pts).

GALWAY: C Callanan; F Moore, P Mannion, J Coen; G Lally (3pts), S Moloney (3pts); I Tannian, A Harte; J Flynn (18pts), C Whelan (12pts), A Smith. INTERCHANGE: E Burke, R Burke, C Donnellan, C Flynn, J Glynn, J Hanbury, D Higgins, P Killeen, C Mannion (3pts), G McInerney, B Molloy (11pts), J Skehill.

REFEREE: A Kelly (Galway)