At 22 years of age, Dublin's free- taker Paul Ryan (Photo: Sportsfile.com) is now one of the highest scorers in the 2011 Hurling Championship... With 2-38 under his belt - he hopes that he will get to score a few more points on the scoreboard - especially this weekend... While many people know the relationship between Ryan O'Dwyer and Tipperary, Paul Ryan also has a bit of Tipperary blood in him and with a name like Ryan it's not a surprise. "Yeah my dad is a Tipperary man. He's from Holycross-Ballycahill and lot of people would say this is where I got my hurling from". Paul's mother is from Mayo so if you see Ryan kicking the sliotar over that bar - she will take that credit... 

After a successful championships so far - Dublin are up against All Ireland Champions Tipperary this weekend in the headquarters... It isn't the first time that Dublin have played Tipperary this year but as we all know the league is completely different from the Championship... So how are the lads going into this weekend's clash "The nerves are fine so far! I have never played in an all Ireland semi final before so obviously the nerves will kick in but just looking forward to the day and the challenge. It's great to be playing against the All Ireland Champions."  Dublin's main problem are injuries within the team and although the lads are a huge loss, Ryan feels that they can't let the heads slip and try and get on with it.."We have been very unlucky with Hiney, Tomás, and Keaney doing their cruciates and the loss of Gougher and Treacy recently have dealt us a blow as well but we know theres other members of the panel that are ready to take their chance. At this stage excuses don't matter and Tipp certainly won't care who we have injured so we have to just get on with it!"  

Tipperary will be favourites going into this weekend's game and as hurling fans know - their forward line is lethal! With top scorer Eoin Kelly at 4-16 so far in the Championship -it's not only him that the Dubs have to be worried about... Waterford found out the hard way against Tipperary and Lar Corbett was a main factor, so how will Antony's Daly's men manage Lar and the boys." All we can do is the best we can, we have nothing to loose out there and if we put our minds to it then anything can happen."  

Kilkenny have already booked their place in the All Ireland Final this September after beating Waterford last weekend in headquarters but has Ryan thought about All Ireland Day at all and if they got to it - beating the Cats !? "Well to be honest it would be naive of me to be looking at the All Ireland final before we play Tipp so it hasn't even crossed my mind. The only priority is to beat Tipp and if that goes well and then we'll think about Kilkenny...

Over the last few months, more and more children and adults are attending hurling games in the capital and this is because of the present Dublin management and team so how important is it for fans to go to the game this Sunday? We have seen an increase in supporters as the campaign has progressed which is great for the game and it would be great to have the same support we've received all year there on Sunday! It's always good to see a sea of blue when you're playing!!