Kilkenny claimed victory over Dublin in an outstanding Leinster final at Dr Cullen Park, Carlow, last evening. An attendance of 2,500 was treated to a magnificent game in sodden conditions.
Dublin sailed into 0-4 to nil lead after 10 minutes with the wind at their backs. Slowly Kilkenny found a foothold in the game after Alan Geoghegan opened their scoring after 11 minutes.
A Henry Shefflin goal from a 20 metres free after 23 minutes put Kilkenny in front for the first time, but Dublin were back on level terms by the interval.
If anything the standard of hurling improved in the second half with both sides hell bent on achieving victory. There were some fine passages of lovely flowing hurling and fine individual scores were notched by both sides.
Kilkenny achieved a major breakthrough in the 36th minute when half forward Michael Hoyne latched on to a breaking ball to hammer a ground shot to the Dublin net. Dublin refused to buckle and with some outstanding hurling from Niall McCaffrey, Shane Ryan, Shane Martin, David Sweeney and their top forward Thomas McGrane, stayed very much in touch.
With just six minutes remaining McGrane missed a 30-metres free in front of goal which would have levelled the game. Kilkenny, let off the hook, went on to score a succession of points to land the title.
Kilkenny: A McCormack; M Maher, M Kavanagh, P Hoyne; J Brennan, PJ Ryan, S Lanigan; R Mullaly, PJ Coady; A Geoghegan (0- 1), J Hoyne, M Hoyne (1-1); P Delaney, O Behan (0-3),[ BO] H Shefflin (1-4). Subs: J Coogan (0-1) for Geoghegan, L Lahart for Ryan, A Cummins for Coady.
Dublin: D Maguire; D Spain, N McCaffrey, R Breen; S Byrne, S Ryan, A Reilly; S Martin (0-1), D Sweeney (0-2); D Daly, R Farrelly, [B O]T McGrane (0-6); S Phillips, L Ryan, K Horgan (0-1). Subs: E Carroll (0-1) for Reilly, D Donnelly for Phillips, S McDonnell (0-1) for Farrelly.
Referee: P Horan (Offaly).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)