Kildare hurlers fall to Laois in high-scoring Leinster U20 clash

Laois 1-29

Kildare 2-16

Kildare were 10 points short when they faced Laois in their Leinster U20 Hurling Championship Preliminary Round clash. Signs were ominous early for The Lilies as the visitors showed quality from range from the opening whistle.

It took just 45 seconds for the scoring to commence and it was Jack Breen who hit first for Laois. Breen finished with 0-5 to his name with all five coming from play.

Full-forward Ben Deegan doubled his side's early advantage after latching onto a breaking ball.

Kildare were already in survival mode and were lucky to escape a green flag when Cormac Byrne glided through on goal but smacked his effort wide of the post. The Laois corner-forward responded superbly with a point just a minute later.

The opening five minutes were summed up by Laois’ fourth point when a long ball sent into the Kildare forwards went nowhere and, after being tidied up with ease, was back over the bar at the other end two passes later.

Tom Power opened Kildare’s account for the day with a well-taken free, which was instantly answered by Rick Bannon following some sloppy play from The Lilies in the middle. Bannon finished as joint top-scorer on the night with 0-7, not bad for last year’s goalkeeper.

Despite the poor start, Kildare grabbed two quick-fire scores through Theo Frisby and Tom Power to halve their disadvantage after they were afforded too much space.

Kildare’s first pair of scores back-to-back was answered by four points in as many minutes from the visitors. Two each for Jer Quinlan and Ben Deegan, including an exceptional sideline cut from the latter meant Laois led 0-9 to 0-3 after 16 minutes.
Two points each in the minutes that followed kept The Laois lead as it was, but Kildare’s best stint came soon after.

Three Tom Power points was Kildare’s best run of scores while they were still in the hunt to progress. Power’s triple reduced the gap to three at 0-11 to 0-8 after 27 minutes.

However, just three minutes away from half-time, Laois showed their class once more and demonstrated their superiority every time that it was in question in this game.

A quick-fire double from Jack Breen and Cian Hill was followed by another score from range from an unmarked Rick Bannon.
After wiping out Power’s three on the Kildare comeback trail, Laois had time for two more before the break with Justin Duggan getting his first of the game. Centre-back Tom Cuddy got the last score of the half and Laois had put their foot down at a crucial stage of this preliminary round fixture.

The visitors led 0-16 to 0-8 at half-time.

It was more of the same after the restart with Kildare chiming in with the odd score here and there, but The Lilies were ultimately overwhelmed by Laois’ scoring power. The visiting side had four players register at least five points for them with Rick Bannon and Jer Quinlan hitting 0-7, Jack Breen with 0-5, and Cormac Byrne hitting 1-2.

Despite the lack of jeopardy late into this game, it was the last 10 minutes when the goal-scoring began. After being introduced at half-time, Alex Bell stepped forward to take a free with his side trailing by 11 points at 0-25 to 0-14. The Moorefield forward drilled his effort low and goalwards with the ball sneaking underneath the bodies in blue on the line. Bell followed his goal with a point just a minute later.

Laois got their only goal of the game with a superb attacking move. A slick series of interplay ended with Kyron Cuddy setting up an easy finish for Cormac Byrne to restore their 10-point lead.

Similar to Declan Rice for Arsenal just a couple of weeks ago, Alex Bell stood over a second free with most assuming he couldn’t replicate his first feat. However, Bell squeezed yet another effort through the blue sea to grab his second goal from a set-piece.

After two late points from Rick Bannon, Jer Quinlan got the game’s last score as Laois finished as 1-29 to 2-16 winners.

SCORERS: Laois, Rick Bannon 0-7, Jer Quinlan 0-7 (0-4 frees), Jack Breen 0-5, Cormac Byrne 1-2, Ben Deegan 0-3 (0-1 sideline), Eoghan Cuddy 0-2, Cian Hill 0-1, Tom Cuddy 0-1, Justin Duggan 0-1.
Kildare, Tom Power 0-8 (0-5 frees), Alex Bell 2-1 (2-0 frees), Cian O'Reilly 0-2, Oran Byrne 0-2, Theo Frisby 0-1, Tom Boran 0-1, CJ Boran 0-1.

LAOIS: Brochan O'Reilly; Rory Kelly, Ciaran Flynn, Joseph Pearson; Cormac Hogan, Tom Cuddy, Cian Hill; Eoghan Cuddy, Ross Deegan; Justin Duggan, Jack Breen, Rick Bannon; Cormac Byrne, Ben Deegan, Jer Quinlan. Subs: Ruaidhrí Kavanagh for Ben Deegan (43 minutes), Kyron Cuddy for Ross Deegan (47 minutes), Patrick O'Callaghan for Justin Duggan (57 minutes).

KILDARE: Cormac Doolan; Dylan Doherty, Darragh Devine, Niall Cramer; Finnán Ó'Dúlaing, Cian Brody, Michael Owens; Oran Byrne, Evan O'Briain; Cian O'Reilly, Charlie Carroll, Andrew McNiffe; Tom Boran, Theo Frisby, Tom Power. Subs: Ciarán Dunne for Finnán O Dúlaing (Half-time), Alex Bell for Charlie Carroll (Half-time), Matthew Kelly for Theo Frisby (40 minutes), Patrick O'Malley for Evan O'Briain (51 minutes), CJ Boran for Andrew McNiffe (55 minutes).

Referee: Mark Ryan

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