AIB All-Ireland junior club hurling championship final:

St Lachtain’s (Kilkenny) 1-18
Russell Rovers (Cork) 0-16

Paul Keane reports from Croke Park

THE AIB All-Ireland junior club hurling title will remain in Kilkenny after a power-packed St Lachtain’s performance, which included a dozen different scorers, secured the silverware.

Shane Donnelly’s 22nd-minute goal gave the Steven Farrell-managed side a vital platform which they used to propel themselves to a landmark win, 15 years after clinching the national intermediate crown.

Donnelly finished with 1-1 while three points apiece from Alex Rafter and Liam Hickey were significant, as was the clean sheet kept by star goalkeeper Darren Brennan who rounded out a strong performance with the St Lachtain’s final score.

That was an important point too because Russell Rovers, also beaten in this final in 2020, put on a late spurt and scored four points in a row between the 54th and 61st minutes to leave just a solitary goal between them.

Russell Rovers, coached by Cork great Donal Og Cusack, desperately needed a goal themselves but it never arrived and two late Lachtain’s scores from Darragh Maher and Brennan did the trick for the Noresiders.

They’re the fifth club from Kilkenny in the last six instalments of this competition to walk away with the title, succeeding Tulllogher-Rosbercon.

Lachtain’s, Kilkenny intermediate finalists as recently as 2021, reached Croke Park with considerable momentum on their side.

Save for a tight Leinster final against the Wexford representatives, they’d been cruising through games since the Kilkenny final with 17 goals registered in their five matches on the road to Croker.

Goal number 18 arrived in the 22nd minute at GAA HQ and amounted to a significant turning point in the game as Lachtain’s suddenly moved from two points ahead to 1-5 to 0-3 up.

Donnelly hit the net after reacting quickly when a long delivery broke kindly off Liam Hickey’s hurl into Donnelly’s path on the left of goals.

A couple of minutes earlier, former Cork senior Brian Hartnett had burst through the centre for Russell Rovers with a goal on his mind before having his jersey pulled by two-time All-Ireland medallist with Kilkenny, Brian Kennedy.

Josh Beausang gambled by going for goal from the resulting free but Kennedy redeemed himself with a goal-line save and Rovers’ agony was compounded three minutes later when Lachtain’s poached their own goal.

Still, it wasn’t a fatal concession from Rovers’ perspective as they finished out the half strongly with three points in a row at one stage from former Cork football star Ciaran Sheehan, Beausang and James Kennefick.

James Maher, once a key figure in Brian Cody’s Kilkenny attacks, closed out the Lachtain’s first-half scoring to leave the men in black and white 1-7 to 0-7 clear at half-time.

A simmering game came to the boil in the third quarter with a sequence of terrific scores, each seemingly more eye-catching and impressive than the previous one.

Jack McGrath, just on at half-time, pinched a point for Russell Rovers in the 34th minute after a brilliant ball across from Hartnett which Sheehan expertly plucked from the air and laid off.

Goalscorer Donnelly then sniped a beauty from the left sideline, on the 20m line, before being upstaged by colleague Liam Hickey who chopped a line ball over the bar from beneath the Hogan Stand.

It all added up to St Lachtain’s hitting the three-quarter stage of the game with a commanding 1-14 to 0-11 lead.

Russell Rovers got a run on them for a period late on, hitting those four points in a row, and Lachtain’s did endure a speed wobble with a number of errant passes and wides but they hung on to cap a memorable campaign.

St Lachtain’s scorers: Shane Donnelly 1-1, Alex Rafter 0-3, Liam Hickey 0-3 (0-1f, 0-1 s/l), James Maher 0-2, Cathal Hickey 0-2, Brendan Quinn 0-1, Paddy Killeen 0-1, Cathal O’Leary 0-1, Mark Donnelly 0-1, Brian Kennedy 0-1, Darragh Maher 0-1, Darren Brennan 0-1 (0-1f).

Russell Rovers scorers: Josh Beausang 0-8 (0-6f, 0-1 65), Luke Duggan Murphy 0-2, Liam Hickey 0-1 (0-1f), Ciaran Sheehan 0-1, Fintan Murray 0-1, James Kennefick 0-1, Jack McGrath 0-1, Kevin Moynihan 0-1, Mark O’Dwyer 0-1.

ST LACHTAINS

1. Darren Brennan

2. Shane Dawson
4. Simon Rafter
3. Criomhthann Bergin (Captain)

5. Padraig Donnelly
6. Brian Kennedy
7. Cathal Hickey

8. Brendan Quinn
9. Mark Donnelly

10. Alexander Rafter
11. Paddy Killeen
14. Cathal O’Leary

13. Shane Donnelly
24. James Maher
15. Liam Hickey

SUBS
12. Darragh Maher for O’Leary (51)
18. John Fitzpatrick for James Maher (52)
17. Cian Dawson for Shane Donnelly (57)
21. Jerry Bergin for Rafter (62)

RUSSELL ROVERS

1. Ross Walsh

23. Kevin Tattan
30. Pierce Cummins
6. Eoghan O’Sullivan

5. Fintan Murray
4. James Kennefick
3. Paul Lane

8. Kieran Walsh
9. Ruairi Cummins

13. Luke Duggan Murphy
11. Kevin Moynihan
12. Dan Ruddy

14. Ciaran Sheehan (Captain)
15. Josh Beausang
10. Brian Hartnett

SUBS

20. Mark O’Dwyer for Lane (28)
19. Jack McGrath for Ruddy (h/t)
2. Kevin O’Brien for Moynihan (57)

Referee: Peter Owens (Down).