Kilkenny explode Wexford optimism

Kilkenny 2-12 Wexford 2-7:Some readers may find this report disturbing from the start. Kilkenny are going ominously well. In this sort of form only a fool would bet against them winning the league - a fifth in six years - and also the All-Ireland.

In fact Kilkenny look as close to unbeatable as any team has in quite a while. Yet all this is becoming tediously predictable, probably even for their own supporters. Their 15-point victory wasn't just a hurling lesson for Wexford but for the rest of the country as well. Kilkenny have a winning hand here and they're not going to surrender it easily.

For a National League semi-final it was terribly disappointing, partly reflected by the amount of yawning in the press box. Kilkenny had their first goal after 22.6 seconds, their first point after a minute, and kept that pace up until half-time, when they were leading 2-10 to 1-3.

In the process they exploded all new-found optimism in Wexford. If this were a distance race all the Wexford players would have been lapped at around the halfway point, and naturally gave up the chase after that. Part of the mystery here is how they somehow beat Galway a week ago, because Wexford were as bad as Kilkenny were good - standing off their man, giving the ball away for free, and almost lazy in their defensive approach.

Kilkenny thundered around Semple Stadium with impervious determination, improvising with incredible ease, and thus ended with all six forwards scoring from play - like Richie Power claiming 0-9, Aidan Fogarty both the goals and a point, and James "Cha" Fitzpatrick 0-3. So they'll be back in Thurles in a fortnight's time to play Waterford in the final, and let's pray that's a little more competitive. Typically, Brian Cody was unmoved about his team's performance, yet probably sensing himself that line about not being able to fool all of the people all of the time.

"Sure, you know hurling can be like that sometimes," he said. "We got a massive start. But there's no point saying that's the reality of either Kilkenny or Wexford, because it's not . . . If we played Wexford again tomorrow it would be a different game. So I'm not going to get foolishly carried away. I would still see Wexford as massive opposition.

"I was reading what a lot of you said about them last Sunday and Monday (good stuff, by the way). And they deserved that. And you can't just write them off again today."

Wexford will learn something from this defeat, and they could start with the word consistency. Darren Stamp did very well to balance out Kilkenny's early goal with a fine strike on four minutes, and added a second goal in injury-time, but all that happened in between was largely forgettable, and best kept that way.

Diarmuid Lyng hit two nice scores and Damien Fitzhenry made some typically heroic saves, but after that Wexford showed little else. When John Meyler later emerged from the dressingroom we expected some cries of desperation, although he was having none of that: "There's no doom and gloom," he said. "So we'll stay positive. We've achieved something getting here, and haven't gone backwards. We need to regroup. We've Dublin on June 9th and that's the next thing. It was a bad start, and we just never built on our goal. We started throwing the ball around, instead of being more direct.

"We're just not up to their pace, that's the bottom line and has been for the last 10 years. There's no balance between last Sunday and what happened here, like if we'd played at even 80 per cent of last Sunday. And we must to able to defend better."

Anyone still not scared yet by the nature of Kilkenny's performance may need reminding their best player and captain Henry Shefflin was watching from the sideline, just back from honeymoon and set to add his ammunition to Kilkenny's artillery. Yet at no stage yesterday was he even mildly missed, with Power's free- taking superb, and Eddie Brennan a constant goal threat before retiring early with a thigh strain.

Derek Lyng was again brilliant at midfield, and their defence practically faultless, with Brian Hogan looking increasingly solid at full back, and Tommy Walsh truly tormenting at wing back. They stuck mostly to a short-passing, direct style, simply because they were allowed to.

This heavy defeat for Wexford, coupled with a similar one for Offaly in the divisional play-off, again suggests a deepening crisis in Leinster hurling: "Well hurling goes like that," said Cody. "There's no crisis. If you're on the sideline, taking on any of these teams, it's different. I'm certainly not in any position nor have the ability to solve any crisis."

KILKENNY: P J Ryan; N Hickey, B Hogan, JJ Delaney; J Tyrrell, J Tennyson, T Walsh; D Lyng (0-2), W O'Dwyer; M Comerford (0-2), E Larkin (0-3), R Power (0-9, four frees, two 65); E Brennan (0-2), J Fitzpatrick (0-3), A Fogarty (2-1). Subs: M Kavanagh for Hickey (54 mins), M Murphy for Comerford (55 mins), P Cleere for Brennan (57 mins, inj), J Ryall for Walsh (60 mins), A Murphy for Larkin (67 mins).

WEXFORD: D Fitzhenry; M Travers, D Ruth, D O'Connor; W Doran, K Rossiter, C Kenny; K Kavanagh, D Lyng (0-2); M Jacob (0-1), E Quigley (0-1), S Nolan; P Carley (0-2, both frees), D Stamp (2-0), R Jacob (0-1). Subs: R Kehoe for Rossiter (38 mins), R McCarthy for Doran (48 mins), B Lambert for Kavanagh (52 mins), M Jordan for M Jacob (53 mins).

Referee: D Kirwan (Cork).