Leinster club hurling finals: St Rynagh’s stage sensational comeback in Offaly

St Rynagh’s 0-16 Birr 1-12

St Rynagh’s staged a sensational recovery to break Birr’s hearts in a fantastic Offaly senior hurling final in Tullamore.

Behind for much of the game, St Rynagh’s looked to be heading to a bitterly disappointing defeat when they trailed by 1-11 to 0-7 12 minutes into the second half. They had performed very poorly until then with only a couple of players playing to standard and Birr were full value for their lead at that stage.

Birr, searching for their first title since 2008, made a dream start and an Eoin Cahill goal helped them to a 1-3 to no score lead after five minutes. They led by 1-7 to 0-4 at half-time and continued to turn the screw in the second half.

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St Rynagh’s finally found top gear in the closing quarter as they took over in all sectors. Stephen Quirke with four points, and Diarmuid Horan with two, made super impacts off the bench and Rynagh’s went on a spree that yielded nine of the last 10 points for an unlikely win – county footballer Joe O’Connor got the winning point a minute into injury time.

ST RYNAGH'S: C Clancy; S Wynne, C Hernon, D Shortt; M Maloney, B Conneely, P Quirke; G Kelly (0-1), J O'Connor (0-1); C Flannery, R Hughes (0-1), G Conneely; A Treacy (0-3, two frees), S Dolan (0-3), A Kenny (0-1, free).

Subs: S Quirke (0-4) for Flannery (27 mins), D Horan (0-2) for G Conneely (h/t), L O'Connor for Kenny (47), G Conneely for Kelly (57), C Flannery for Horan (61).

BIRR: B Mullins; J Irwin, D Watkin, O Murphy; B Watkins, P Cleary, S Ryan; B Murphy (0-1), S Lonergan; C Taylor (0-1), D Hayden, C Mulrooney (0-3); M Watkins (0-1), E Cahill (1-5, three frees), B Harding.

Subs: P Mullins (0-1) for Harding (11 mins), M Verney for Hayden (49), D Queegan for P Mullins (55), E Pilkington for B Watkins (58), T Bolger for Lonergan (64).

Referee: Kieran Dooley.

LAOIS SHC FINAL

Rathdowney-Errill 0-17 Borris-Kilcotton 1-9

Rathdowney-Errill claimed the Laois SHC title for the sixth time in their short history following a hard-earned win over Borris-Kilcotton in O’Moore Park.

Mark Kavanagh helped himself to 11 points from placed balls while Ross King hit four from play as they made up for the disappointment of losing last year’s decider and won their first final since 2014.

In a scrappy affair it took Rathdowney-Errill until the 15th minute to get their first score when Mark Kavanagh landed a free but by half-time they were 0-6 to 0-5 ahead thanks to two more frees from Kavanagh, two from King and one from Tadhg Dowling. As always, PJ Scully hit the bulk of the Borris-Kilcotton scores with three first-half points.

Rathdowney-Errill gave themselves some breathing space by hitting the first five points of the second half and by the 40th minute they had an 0-11 to 0-5 lead.

Borris-Kilcotton burst into life with an Aaron Dunphy goal in the 42nd minute and points from Scully and Foyle had them within one entering the final quarter.

Indeed they could have been ahead only for a brilliant Damian Madden save on Dunphy.

But Rathdowney-Errill settled themselves and hit four-in-a-row to take control and see it out.

RATHDOWNEY-ERRILL: D Madden; J Corrigan, B Campion, J Purcell; J Fitzpatrick, J Kelly, E Killeen; P Purcell, J Keane; T Dowling (0-1), S Dollard, J Ryan; M Kavanagh (0-11, nine frees, two 65s), R King (0-4), P McCane (0-1).

Subs: B McGinley for Dowling (37 mins), E Bourke for Dollard (53-55).

BORRIS-KILCOTTON: E Fleming; D Fitzpatrick, S Phelan, S Finan; J Fitzpatrick, M Whelan, P Whelan; C Kilbane, C Stapleton; D Quinlan, N Foyle (0-2), A Dunphy (1-0); S Dunphy, J Campion (0-1), PJ Scully (0-6, five frees).

Subs: E Jones for S Dunphy (38 mins), D Carey for Quinlan (60).

Referee: A Doheny (Castletown).

WESTMEATH SHC FINAL

Clonkill 2-16 Castletown Geoghegan 1-16

Clonkill regained the Westmeath senior hurling title with a hard-earned win against Castletown Geoghegan in Mullingar yesterday afternoon.

Clonkill led by 0-3 to 0-1 when Ciarán O’Brien found the net for Castletown Geoghegan in the 10th minute. Jordy Smyth levelled the contest at 1-3 apiece when he netted in the 16th minute. Peadar Scally scored Clonkill’s second goal with the last puck of the half, and they led by 2-9 to 1-4 at the break.

Castletown Geoghegan never managed to reduce the deficit to less than two points despite Clonkill being reduced to 14 players when Kelvin Reilly picked up a second yellow card in the 56th minute.

CLONKILL: A Mitchell; D Egerton, Adam Price, J Kenny; K Reilly, P Dowdall (0-1), L Folan (0-1); S Power, C Austin (0-1); N Mitchell (0-1), P Scally (1-0), L Loughlin (0-2); N Dowdall (0-1), B Murtagh (0-6, two frees, one 65), J Smyth (1-2).

Subs: Anthony Price (0-1) for N Dowdall (40 mins), E Price for Austin (46), M Keegan for P Dowdall (52), C Nolan for Scally (59), A Loughlin for Smyth (60+6).

CASTLETOWN GEOGHEGAN: S Maher; C Kane, D McDermott, A Glennon; L Varley (0-1), S Clavin, D Lynch (0-1); J Bermingham, P Maxwell (0-1); N Kirby, A Clarke (0-9, seven frees), P Doody; J Clarke (0-3), N O'Brien, C O'Brien (1-0).

Subs: E Quinn for Kirby (inj, 15 mins), A Corbett (0-1) for Doody (h/t), C Deegan for C O'Brien (55), N McKenna for J Clarke (60+1).

Referee: A Devine (Castlepollard).

MEATH SHC FINAL REPLAY

Kildalkey 1-17 Kiltale 0-11

Kiltale’s quest for a record equalling six-in-a-row of Meath SHC titles was halted in this final replay at Páirc Tailteann.

Challengers Kildalkey, who let a match-winning lead slip in the closing stages of the drawn game, made no mistake on this occasion as they outclassed the champions.

Boosted by six points from man-of-the-match Patrick Conneely, Kildalkey led 0-10 to 0-8 at the end of a closely contested opening half.

Kiltale only managed three second-half points as Kildalkey completely dominated after the break.

The winners led 0-14 to 0-11 before midfielder Patrick Potterton blasted to the net for the game’s only goal on 54 minutes to end Kiltale’s reign.

KILDALKEY: M McCormack; D Conneely, G Kelly, B Kelly (0-1); J McNally, D Harmon, M Doran; P Potterton (1-0), P Geoghegan (0-2); L Rickard (0-1), K McKeon, S Heavey (0-2); N Potterton (0-2), P Conneely (0-8, five frees), B McKeon (0-1).

Subs: E Fitzgerald for K McKeon (h/t), M Healy for Fitzgerald (52 mins), N Kirby for Rickard (59), N McNally for Kelly (65), D Doran for N Potterton (66).

KILTALE: S McGann; I Hughes, P Garvey, D Donoghue; S Donoghue, Ronan Ryan, J Kelly; W Mahady, P Kelly (0-1); A Murphy (0-1), C McCabe (0-1), J Regan (0-3, three frees); Ross Ryan, P Durnin (0-1), M O'Sullivan (0-4).

Subs: F McCabe for Mahedy (39 mins), E Ryan for Durnin (46).

Referee: F Smith (Kildare).

CARLOW SHC FINAL

St Mullins 2-17 Mount Leinster Rangers 1-19

A point from play in the fourth minute of injury time by St Mullins right full forward Jason O’Neill gave 14-man St Mullins victory in a thrilling Carlow SHC final at Netwatch Cullen Park, denying south county neighbours Mount Leinster Rangers the three-in-a-row.

The Saints, in claiming their 27th title, were inspired by Marty Kavanagh, who scored 0-10, 0-5 from play in a man-of-the-match performance.

St Mullins left half back Ger Coady was sent off on a straight red card after 14 minutes as they led 2-12 to 1-9 at the break.

Rangers rallied to twice draw level late on but O’Neill had the last say for the new champions.

ST MULLINS: K Kehoe; C Kavanagh, P Doyle, G Bennett; J Doran, M Walsh, G Coady; J Doyle (0-3), O Boland; P Boland (1-1), S Murphy (1-1), M Kavanagh (0-10, five frees); J O'Neill (0-2), P Walsh, P Connors.

Subs: P Fortune for P Walsh (48 mins), O Ryan for Boland (62).

MOUNT LEINSTER RANGERS: D Grennan; W Hickey, D Tobin, M Doyle; K McDonald, R Coady, R Kelly; Diarmuid Byrne (0-1), J Murphy; J Nolan (0-2), T Joyce (0-1), D Phelan; D Murphy (1-13, 13 frees), C Nolan (0-2), E Byrne.

Subs: P Coady for Phelan (28 mins), Derek Byrne for Kelly (33).

Referee: P O'Dwyer (Palatine).