14-05-2025
Kilkenny blow Laois away in last 20 minutes to reach Leinster U20 final
Leinster U20 Hurling Championship semi-final: Kilkenny 0-26 Laois 1-9
More evidence in Portlaoise that when a Kilkenny team hits the afterburners, few can live with them.
Laois kept pace with Mark Dowling's Cats for 40 minutes of this Leinster U-20 semi-final and trailed by just a point at that stage.
In fact, after scoring three points in a row from Ben Deegan they were eyeing a win to mirror their defeat of the same opposition, at the same stage and venue, three years ago.
That was precisely when Kilkenny moved up a couple of gears, however, impressively reeling off 13 points in a row to secure their first final at this grade since 2022.
Michael Brennan scored eight points in all for Kilkenny and five of those came during that scoring burst between the 40th and 56th minutes.
Powerful full-forward Marty Murphy came strongly into the game too, scoring three points in that period and five overall.
Kilkenny had 10 different scorers over the hour as they burned off a Laois side that had previously scored an impressive quarter-final win over Wexford.
Kyron Cuddy's 30th minute goal for Laois, when he followed up on a blocked shot to convert from close range, left the hosts just a point down at that stage, 1-4 to 0-8.
Rory Glynn and Brennan pointed for Kilkenny who were 0-10 to 1-4 up at half-time though those three Deegan points in a row, all from frees, hinted at a second Laois coming.
Laois only added two more points in the game though, late scores from Jack Breen and sub Cian Hill as Kilkenny went for the jugular.
Scorers for Kilkenny: M Brennan 0-8 (4 frees); M Murphy 0-5; A McEvoy (2 frees), A Ireland Wall, E McDermott, E Lyng, S Bergin 0-2 each; E Lauhoff, R Glynn, G Kelly 0-1 each.
Scorers for Laois: B Deegan 0-4 (4 frees); K Cuddy 1-0; T Cuddy, R Deegan, J Quinlan, J Breen, C Hill 0-1 each.
KILKENNY: S Manogue; I Bolger, R Garrett, D Vereker; E Lyng, J Neary, C Hickey; T McPhillips, S Bergin; E Lauhoff, A McEvoy, M Brennan; E McDermott, M Murphy, R Glynn.
Subs: A Ireland Wall for McEvoy (39); J Hughes for Murphy (52); G Kelly for McDermott (56); L Hogan for Brennan (56); J Lyng for Neary (59).
LAOIS: B O'Reilly; R Kelly, J Pearson, C Hogan; C Hill, T Cuddy, C Flynn; E Cuddy, R Deegan; B Deegan, C Byrne, J Breen; J Quinlan, J Duggan, K Cuddy.
Subs: M Downey for Kavanagh (46); E Cassin for R Deegan & P O'Callaghan for B Deegan (53); C Hill for Duggan (58).
Ref: A Kinahan (Offaly).
