Wexford and Galway - All Ireland Champions to break their duck?
Galway will be hoping to deliver All-Ireland Champions Wexford’s second straight defeat in this year’s Gala All Ireland Senior Camogie Championship when the teams face each other this weekend.
The two sides met in the semi-final of last year’s Championship when Wexford had a comfortable ten point win but Galway have been much improved so far this year. The Tribeswomen had a very impressive National League that saw them only narrowly lose out to Kilkenny in the final.
Since then, Galway have continued their fine form with a comprehensive win over Championship newcomers, Limerick, in the first round of games. A victory this weekend would put Galway within touching distance of a place in the semi final while a loss for Wexford would leave them under pressure and in of need of win in their next game against League Champions Kilkenny.
Wexford have had an indifferent start to 2008. The Model County got the better of Cork and Dublin in the League but lost to Kilkenny for a place in the final. In their first game of this year’s Championship, Cork returned the favour with a comprehensive 3-6 to 0-5 win over them in the last found of games that leaves Wexford in a desperate need of a win on Saturday.
Galway captain, Sinéad Cahalan, is aware of the threat a wounded Wexford poses but is still confident of achieving a win: “We know that there is potentially going to be backlash from Wexford. They were well beaten by Cork and in many ways they need to get a win here. We know they will be seriously up for it. On the other side of that we’re not afraid of facing any them. We have to play every team and if Wexford had beaten Cork last time, it would be a different story but at the end of the day we still need the win and so do they.”
The Mullagh clubwoman added, “We haven’t had a match in a long time and the game against Limerick didn’t really test either team. Since then we’ve training exceptionally hard, we have eased off in the last week but we couldn’t be anymore more prepared. We’re ready go out and win but if we loose it won’t be for lack of preparation or lack of desire.”
Elsewhere in the Championship, Dublin entertain Limerick with both teams looking for their first win. Dublin lost out to Cork and Tipperary while Limerick have had a tough oul start to their Senior Championship life. The Shannonsiders were well beaten by both Galway and Kilkenny and now seek their first victory - led of course by Squareball’s favourite camog Deirdre Fitzpatrick.
Cork and Tipperary put their 100% records on the line when they clash on Sunday. The 2006 Championship finalists have looked impressive this year and go head to head on Sunday in what should be a tight encounter.
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