Jackie Tyrrell: No big gap between Leinster and Munster hurling

Jackie Tyrrell doesn't believe the standard of hurling in Leinster is far off that in Munster.

Munster teams have won the last five All-Ireland SHC titles (four of them for Limerick) for the first time since the early 1950s and Kilkenny's U20 triumph last year ended a run of 10 winless years in a row for Leinster.

Our hurling columnist Shane McGrath wrote this week that "right now if you were to pick the top five teams in the country, four, if not five, would be from Munster".

Jackie Tyrrell accepts McGrath's proposition that six-team Leinster is an "easier nut to crack right now" but the Kilkenny great told the RTÉ GAA podcast that "The gap probably isn't as big as people perceive.

"There is a slight imbalance on the two round-robins. With all due respect to everybody in it, Leinster is slightly easier because there are weeks when games aren't as competitive as the Munster championship. I will admit that.

"Kilkenny and Galway are probably a little ahead of the rest of them.

"But if you look back to the All-Ireland semi-finals, there was Clare, Kilkenny and Galway, two from Leinster, and Limerick are the market leaders by a stretch.

"I think you have to include Kilkenny and Galway [in the top five]. I think Shane [probably] excluded Kilkenny, maybe because of the transition from Brian Cody to Derek Lyng.

"I see the merits of his comments but I don't agree with them.

"But there will always be this healthy banter between Leinster and Munster. It's just the nature of it when you have only two round-robins."

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