Pat Ryan hails Rebels' resilience and bench impact

Cork manager Pat Ryan praised the tenacity of his team after they rallied in the final quarter to rescue a draw at home to Tipperary in a breathless Munster Championship game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Trailing by five points early in the second half, and again with seven minutes remaining, Cork rustled up 2-04 in the closing stages, even surviving a sucker punch goal from Mark Kehoe late on to earn a point.

The home bench was key to the late revival, with Shane Kingston rattling over 0-03, Tim O'Mahony and Conor Lehane both landing important scores, while it was St Finbarr's Brian Hayes who coolly flicked home the fourth goal on 69 minutes.

"I suppose we were coming down here to get the two points. But look, obviously, 15 minutes into that second half, things weren't looking great," Ryan told RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport afterwards.

"But our fellas fought fierce hard. But we've been fighting fierce hard all year. We were behind in lots of games in the league and Munster league but players have been showing great heart.

"We know we've a very good bench and we needed it today. I think we got 1-05 off our bench which was vital.

"Tipperary are a very good team, they've an excellent management team and they've been going well. We'd have been disappointed with a couple of the opportunities that we had in the first half that would have made a difference, goal opportunities.

"I thought we did very well in defending them from goal opportunities. But typical Tipperary and typical Liam Cahill team, they got two goals in the second half at bad moments for us.

"But I thought we responded to them very well. I'm delighted with our lads."

Cork lost Robbie O'Flynn shortly before half-time, the wing-forward picking up a hamstring injury in the course