Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) 1-21
St Mullins (Carlow) 0-15
Shane Stapleton reports from O’Moore Park, Portlaoise
BALLYHALE SHAMROCKS RETAINED their Leinster club title at a canter as Henry Shefflin’s record of winning every championship he has entered as manager continued.
Colin Fennelly found the net just after the break to put the Kilkenny champions into an unassailable seven-point lead, on a day when TJ Reid hit 0-9, with Adrian Mullen and Brian Cody nabbing 0-3 apiece.
Shefflin took over his native side at the start of last season, and has delivered back-to-back Kilkenny titles, two provincial crowns, and is now just two games away from retaining the All-Ireland.
The writing was always on the wall here in terms of whose name was on the cup.
When a 50-50 ball was there to be won, the St Mullins men were getting there just as quickly as the Ballyhale troops.
In many cases, they got there earlier and never lacked for hunger, but at times some of their hurling let them down.
If the Carlow boys missed a chance to take the ball out of a ruck, it was quickly snaffled by a Shamrock — a theme repeated throughout.
Mullins went ahead 0-5 to 0-3 on 12 minutes thanks to four points from Marty ‘Mouse’ Kavanagh (three frees) and a sideline from Jason O’Neill.
TJ Reid, his brother Eoin, and young Brian Cody helped the champions necklace five scores together without reply.
Mouse put over two more placed balls to take Mullins’ tally to seven by the half, but Conor Phelan, Eoin and Brian Cody were all converting from play.
Saints needed a fast start to the second half but when TJ Reid got in behind the cover, he found Colin Fennelly who stepped inside the goalkeeper and steered the ball to the net on 32 minutes.
Eoin Cody, Mullen and Reid continued to pile on the scores and, in truth, the Shamrocks were never really in danger.
The scoreboard reset itself to 0-0 for a brief spell on 50 minutes but the reality was that Ballyhale were cutting the challengers adrift with ease.
Offaly boss Michael Fennelly, who won his first match in charge against Kildare on Saturday, was sent off on a second yellow card but it mattered little.
Leinster champions once more, and heavy favourites to retain the big one.
Scorers for Ballyhale Shamrocks: TJ Reid 0-9 (0-8f), Adrian Mullen, Brian Cody 0-3 each, Colin Fennelly 1-0, Eoin Cody 0-2, Conor Phelan, Evan Shefflin, Mark Aylward, Eoin Reid 0-1 each.
Scorers for St Mullins: Marty Kavanagh 0-12 (0-8f, 0-1 ’65), Jason O’Neill 0-2 (0-1 sl), James Doyle 0-1.
Ballyhale Shamrocks
1. Dean Mason
2. Darragh Corcoran
3. Joey Holden
4. Darren Mullen
5. Evan Shefflin
6. Michael Fennelly
7. Brian Butler
17. Conor Phelan
8. Ronan Corcoran
10. Adrian Mullen
9. T.J. Reid
11. Brian Cody
13. Eoin Reid
15. Eoin Cody
14. Colin Fennelly
Subs:
21. Joey Cuddihy for Eoin Reid (43 mins)
26. Conor Walsh for Conor Phelan (46 mins)
17. Gavin Butler for Darragh Corcoran (56 mins)
22. Mark Aylward for Eoin Cody (57 mins)
24. Eoin Kenneally for Brian Cody (61 mins)
St Mullins
1. Kevin Kehoe
2. John Doran
3. Paul Doyle
4. Garry Bennett
5. Chris Kavanagh
6. Ger Coady
7. Oisin Boland
8. Mick Walsh
9. Jack Kavanagh
10. Seamus Murphy
11. Marty Kavanagh
19. Paidi O Shea
13. Jason O’Neill
14. James Doyle
15. Paddy Boland
Subs:
12. Patrick Walsh for Jack Kavanagh (50 mins)
17. Philip Connors for Patrick Boland (55 mins)
20. John Murphy for Chris Kavanagh (57 mins)
22. Oisin Ryan for Seamus Murphy (57 mins)
18. Paul Kehoe for Jason O’Neill (61 mins)
– Updated 16.23: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Richie Reid as Ballyhale Shamrocks’ number seven; Brian Butler wore number seven.
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As a Munster fan I hate to say it, but Nienaber is definitely the man who can get Leinster to win trophies again. They have been in ruthless form for a few years, winning games almost by default, but then don’t do it when it really counts. Nienaber will be the guy who can make this Leinster team more resilient. I hope Munster can be even more resilient though and win the champions cup and the URC.
@Jorgen Hartogs: maybe last weekend was the start of that. Leinster have a habit of losing games in the last few minutes not the other way round.
@chris mcdonnell: I don’t know if we can conclude much from last week. Surely Leinster’s problem has just been the inability of their first team to beat the physically more powerful La Rochelle and prime Saracens. Sure they’ve lost a few more with heavily rotated teams, but that’s a different set of issues. At this time I’d say the major new concern would be whether we’re seeing post RWC rustiness/mental fatigue or whether some top players are now past their peak
Yikes