Order restored as Kilkenny get back to winning ways

If results elsewhere this weekend had certain people talking about a hurling revolution, then at least some order was restored yesterday. Kilkenny got back to winning ways - even if it was their first win of the league - with a typically ruthless victory over Limerick, taming them well before half-time, and killing them softly in the end.

More or less where they left off last season then, and back in this sort of mood it will take an equally ruthless team to stall their winning form again. They have only Antrim and Galway to come, and despite those early fears it now seems certain Kilkenny will be there defending their league title at least during the play-offs.

With the triumphant Ballyhale players also ready to return it's very much a case of business as usual. Henry Shefflin will probably take a longer break given his impending marriage but on the basis on this performance there is every reason to believe Kilkenny could restore their unbeaten run in the weeks and months ahead.

Limerick came to town looking to regain some form of their own, but were simply blown away in the first half - not helped of course by the strong wind favouring Kilkenny - and thus forced into damage limitation in the second half. They were at least somewhat successful in that because without the fine goalkeeping display of Brian Murray things could have got really ugly for them.

Word had spread before the game that manager Brian Cody had given his Kilkenny players 20 minutes to prove themselves, or else . . . clearly upset at the round two defeat to Tipperary, Cody's threat obviously worked as that was all Kilkenny needed to establish a winning hand.

The howling, arctic wind was naturally a big factor, and having won the toss Limerick chose to start out into it. That tactic soon backfired as Kilkenny built up a 12-point advantage at half-time, which they then extended to 16 points early in the second half. Martin Comerford switched with Eddie Brennan and played at full forward, and his goal on 17 minutes had Kilkenny up 1-4 to 0-1.

Yet all around Comerford the Kilkenny forwards were on fire: Richie Power hit 0-4 in the first half, three from play; Eoin McCormack hit 0-2; Peter Cleere and Aidan Fogarty one each. Just before half-time Power set up midfielder Derek Lyng for the second goal that brought it to 2-10 to 0-4 - clearly leaving no way back for Limerick.

Part of Limerick's problem was that they just never got going. Manager Richie Bennis had been forced into making several changes, with the likes of Brian Geary, Ollie Moran, Brian Begley all absent, and yet none of the replacements came close to filling the holes. Niall Moran and Mike O'Brien tried in vain to establish some scoring momentum, but with eight first-half wides the hearts and heads soon sank.

"We're disappointed, very disappointed," said Bennis. "We knew Kilkenny would be up for a bit of a backlash, but we didn't expect it that bad. But we never got going either.

"We're short eight players, and for a team like Limerick that's a lot. But we have to start all over again now. It is a setback, if we allow it to be a setback. But the players have to stand up and be counted now. It makes for a very crucial game against Dublin next Sunday."

Kilkenny weren't in the mood to back off even playing into the strong wind, and Eddie Brennan's point on 57 minutes, taking them to 2-16 to 0-7, meant that every Kilkenny player from number eight to number 15 had now contributed to the scoreboard.

It was that kind of afternoon for Kilkenny, when they just seemed to do all the simple things so much simpler.

"I'd be happy enough with the performance," announced Cody. "We had a decent lead at half-time, definitely, but with the strong wind there, it was still a question of doing the things in the second half that we had done in the first half. Still it was a step up from two weeks ago, in that we improved in lots of different aspects of our game. We were looking at today as a giving us a good indication of where we were going, so we have to be reasonably happy."

While this result again shakes up an already volatile division 1B, Cody had the look of a man content that steadiness at his end had been restored - despite the ups and downs of the teams around him: "We can only look after ourselves obviously, and if we had lost today we could have said goodbye to our chances of qualifying. And we wanted to qualify. So it was a serious game for us.

"And the players were serious themselves about the approach to it. They realised the situation. We always want to do as well as we can in the league, and win the league if at all possible. It was just about getting the whole approach to the thing right, and getting the basics right. There is no magic in this game, really. It's about getting the basics right, playing strong hurling, defending well. And I think those aspects were decent for us."

So this is Kilkenny back playing decent. What will they be like when they are back playing well?

KILKENNY: PJ Ryan; N Hickey, B Hogan, JJ Delaney; J Tyrell, PJ Delaney, T Walsh; D Lyng (1-0), M Rice (0-2); P Cleere (0-1), M Comerford (1-2), R Power (0-6, three frees); E McCormack (0-3), E Brennan (0-1), A Fogarty (0-1). Subs: J Dalton for Tyrell (41 mins), E Larkin (0-1) for Fogarty (43 mins), M Murphy for McCormack (54 mins, inj), W O'Dwyer for Larkin (59 mins, inj).

LIMERICK: B Murray; D Reale, S Lucey, Maurice O'Brien; P O'Dwyer, W McNamara, P Lawlor; D O'Grady, K Tobin (0-1); N Moran (0-4), Mike O'Brien (0-1), C Fitzgerald; A O'Shaughnessy (0-5, all frees), S O'Connor, B Foley. Subs: J O'Brien for Fitzgerald (59 mins), S Hickey for O'Dwyer, D Ryan for Foley (both 47 mins), M Fitzgerald (0-1) for O'Grady (59 mins).

Referee: Ambrose Heagney (Clare).