Birr ... 4-21 St Mullins ... 0-8 Carlow champions St Mullins, appearing in their very first semi-final in over 30 years, suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of reigning All-Ireland champions Birr at Portlaoise yesterday.
While the scoreline hardly does justice to the efforts of the Carlow men the result was never in doubt. Within five minutes of the throw-in Birr had three points on the board. Though Carlow responded with two well-taken points from Anthony Ralph and David Doyle, in the space of two minutes goals from Stephen Browne and Paul Molloy effectively ended the game as a contest.
A succession of points from Johnny and Declan Pilkington, Simon Whelahan and Paul Molloy helped give Birr a half-time lead of 2-10 to 0-4.
In the opening 10 minutes of the second half Birr added six further points and when Rory Hanniffy scored their third goal, they led by 17 points.
In the final quarter Birr used their full quota of substitutes and although the Carlow champions never gave up, they were always fighting a lost cause.
On this performance Birr will be warm favourites to add another Leinster title when they face the Kilkenny champions Young Irelands at the same venue in two weeks' time, especially as this is their sixth provincial final and they have lost none of them.
Birr half back Niall Claffey won the man-of-the-match award. On the day few club teams would have lived with Birr and St Mullins can hold their heads high. Their most effective players were Tom Doyle, goalkeeper Pat Fenlon, Anthony Ralph, Seamus O'Shea, Declan Kavanagh, Pat Cody, David Doyle and Michael Ryan.
BIRR: B Mullins; B Cahill, J Errity, JP O'Meara; D Franks, Brian Whelahan (0-3), N Claffey (0-1); Barry Whelahan, R Hanniffy (1-1); P Molloy (1-1), J Pilkington (0-2), G Hanniffy; S Browne (1-3), D Pilkington (0-3), S Whelahan (1-3). Subs: L Power (0-1) for R Hanniffy, D Hayden (0-1) for P Molloy, P O'Meara for G Hanniffy, G O'Meara for JP O'Meara, P Carroll (0-2) for N Claffey.
ST MULLINS: P Fenlon; E McDonald, T Doyle, M Kehoe; R Dreelan, S O'Shea, A Ralph (0-1); D Kavanagh, Paddy Cody; P Kehoe, Pat Cody (0-6), S Gahan; D Murphy, M Ryan, D Doyle (0-1). Subs: P Murphy for D Doyle, W Cody for T Doyle.
Referee: P Neary (Kilkenny).
