Gerald McCarthy insisted after the All-Ireland hurling semi-final that Cork had nothing to be ashamed of in losing to "one of the teams of the decade". Despite his obvious disappointment, the Cork boss magnanimously hailed a superb Kilkenny side. "I don't think it's any horror to lose to a team of that quality," he said. "Today, their point scoring was simply outstanding and their backs were exceptionally quick to close down our forwards and forced them into errors. "It's hard to judge teams of different eras, Kilkenny had some great teams in the 70s and 80s, but this team is certainly up there with the best of them. They're a superb hurling bunch, very strong, very physical and they have a great mix to their game." McCarthy refused to blame his team's recent hectic schedule, in which they played three games in 15 days, for their defeat. "No, we played the semi-final against one of the teams of the decade. That's where we wanted to be, no matter how many games we had to play to get there. "We have to admire Kilkenny, they gave a marvellous performance up to the 23rd minute, we seemed to take our foot off the pedal a little bit and you can't do that against Kilkenny - they rapped out an eight-point lead very quickly." Tweet

Most Read Stories