Meath 3-19 Kilkenny 0-5: Meath took control in Navan after John L McGee netted on 12 minutes.

Twelve minutes later Kilkenny wing back Paddy Mullally was shown a straight red card. His side trailed by 0-3 to 1-9 at the break. Ian McManus and Peter Curran added second-half goals for Meath.

MEATH: J Curry; T Bannon, C McLoughlin, P Nugent (0-1); B Kieran, J Donoghue, G Hynes; J Gallagher (0-1), S Dillon; W Reilly (0-2), I McManus (1-4), G McCullough (0-2); P Curran (1-2), B Lynch (0-4), J L McGee (1-2). Subs: J Bruton for Donoghue, I Mullins for Nugent, K Hamilton (0-1) for McManus, T BLake for McGee

KILKENNY: F Murphy; G Doyle, A Murphy, S Flynn; R Nolan (0-1), P Mullins, P Mullally; S Kennedy (0-1), P Shore; D Herity, J Maher (0-2), M Grace; P Sheehan, P Maher (0-1), A Holden. Subs: D Dunne for Flynn, P Buggy for Shore, K Meaney for Sheehan,D Byrne for Holden, P Donnelly for Grace.

Referee: A McKenna (Louth).