Waterford 7-31 Laois 0-19
Waterford strolled to a 33 point win on the day that Tadhg De Burca made his intercounty comeback after a 14 month absence.
The biggest cheer of the afternoon was reserved for the Clashmore/Kinsalebeg defender when he made way on 49 minutes. It was his first competitive outing since the 2020 All-Ireland final against Limerick when he suffered the second cruciate knee ligament injury of his career. “Tadhg came back in really good nick didn’t he?” remarked Déise manager Liam Cahill. “He’s a serious man the way he has prepared behind the scenes to come back from that horrific injury in the 2020 All-Ireland. Really thrilled for him that he’s back. To come back and have his hurling as crisp as it was today is testament to the man.”
Four goals in four minutes at the end of the first half ended the game as a contest. Laois got within two points on the half hour mark before Waterford hit them with a hurricane of 4-5 before the break.
2020 All Star Stephen Bennett shot 3-8, including two second half penalties, while Patrick Curran helped himself to 1-7 from play. Carthach Daly, Austin Gleeson and Ciaran Kirwan also found the net for the rampant hosts.
“We look to develop this ruthlessness in our play and we’re happy today that when we got the chance to kick on and hurt Laois, we went about our business properly. That has to happen more often with this Waterford team to go to the places we believe we can go to.”
Kirwan got 1-4 on his first league start as he carried on his impressive Fitzgibbon Cup form with WIT. “He had a good display. He is in with us quite a while and to be fair to the chap, he wasn’t really ready over the last 12 months or year and a half that he has been in with us but he has shown massive progression. He deserved his chance today and he definitely grabbed it.”
Laois nearly shocked the Déise in the All Ireland qualifiers last summer so this landslide loss was a blow to Seamus Cheddar Plunkett. “A tough defeat to take, particularly after a really solid performance last weekend. We wanted to build on that and we wanted to come down here and give the same consistent, spirited performance. The goals obviously killed us, it was four in a row before half time, and maybe it was just the concession of them, they broke up the middle on us, and we probably just conceded them a little bit easily and that’s a little bit disappointing.”
The visitors finished with 13 men as corner forward Ben Conroy saw red for a high challenge on Tom Barron and full-back Sean Downey got a black. “Ben was going in to dispossess and to hold him up. Sometimes these things happen. I think they’re harsh but I suppose rules are there. I think a lot of that physicality has gone out of hurling, to be honest with you, but they are the rules and we’ve just got to play with that. I don’t think that this particular Laois team, in any sense, could be regarded as an ill-disciplined team in that sense.”
Waterford: B Nolan; C Gleeson, C Prunty, I Daly; J Fagan (0-1), T de Búrca, T Barron (0-2); C Daly (1-1), P Curran (1-7); J Prendergast (0-1), Stephen Bennett (3-8 2-0 pens, 6f), DJ Foran (0-1); C Kirwan (1-4), M Kiely, A Gleeson (1-3).
Subs: B Power (0-1) for Kiely (22 mins), D Lynch for De Burca (49 mins), M Fitzgerald (0-1) for A Gleeson (52 mins), I Beecher (0-1) for Prendergast (55 mins), D Lyons for Prunty (61 mins).
Laois: E Rowland (0-2, 2fs); D Conway, S Downey, D Hartnett; P Delaney, L O'Connell, R Mullaney (0-1); F Fennell (0-1), J Kelly; S Bergin (0-1), J Lennon, R King (0-4); B Conroy, W Dunphy (0-1), S Maher (0-8 5fs, 1 65).
Subs: J Keyes for Lennon (half-time), C Phelan for Bergin (half-time), PJ Scully for Dunphy (half-time), A Corby (0-1) for Kelly (45 mins), P Dunne for Delaney (61 mins).
Referee: P O'Dwyer (Carlow)
