Portumna face biggest test yet

IN sporting terms, this clash has the potential to be up there. Dublin v Kerry in football, Kilkenny v Cork in hurling, Liverpool v AC Milan in soccer, Borg v McEnroe in tennis, Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier in boxing …In hurling circles – and this is all relative – the meeting of 2006 and 2008 All-Ireland club champions Portumna against 2007 victors Ballyhale Shamrocks has been as widely anticipated among this fraternity as any of the great sporting moments above.There are so many plots and sub-plots to this one that it would put a Jeffrey Archer or John Connolly novel to shame. In the Portumna corner, you have the Prince of Hurling Joe Canning; in the Ballyhale Shamrocks corner, there is King Henry, aka Henry Shefflin.The abundance of skills in these two men’s repertoire alone whets the appetite. Then, you have the likes of captain Ollie Canning, Eoin Lynch and the ever-busy and wily Damien Hayes, among many others, who fuel the pride of the parish element in Portumna. For Ballyhale, James 'Cha’ Fitzpatrick, Michael Fennelly and TJ and Eoin Reid perform similar roles. And again, these are just a few among many.Indeed, so...