St Lachtain's 1-18 Russell Rovers 0-16
Kilkenny's stranglehold on the AIB All-Ireland Junior Club Hurling Championship continued on Sunday afternoon in Croke Park, where St Lachtain’s outplayed Russell Rovers for long stretches of the 2025 final and were full value for their victory over their East Cork opponents.
Russell Rovers had one first-half purple patch where they replied to the concession of Shane Donnelly’s game with three points in succession in the space of five minutes, and they went on a similar run in the closing stages when a 1-16 to 0-12 lead was cut back by four consecutive points, two each from Josh Beausang and Luke Duggan Murray.
But outside of that the Kilkenny side was more accurate, more balanced and simply that bit better in the majority of individual battles.
The Leinster champions led by 1-07 to 0-07 at half-time, but it was notable at that stage that they had eight different scorers; each of the starting forwards and midfielders had raised one flag, all from play.
Meanwhile Russell Rovers leaned heavily on their star inside forward duo of Ciarán Sheehan and Josh Beausang, with neither player managing to make a strong impact from open play.
A finger injury that forced the withdrawal of starting centre-back Paul Lane didn’t help the Cork club’s cause, but in the trenches they struggled to compete, with the St Lachtain’s midfield duo of Brendan Quinn and Mark Donnelly playing a key role in their side grinding out that early lead.
The key score was a route one goal, an 80-metre delivery from Brian Kennedy that broke off Liam Hickey and was snaffled and whipped to the top corner of the net by Shane Donnelly.
After a comparatively low-scoring first half, the contest exploded into life at the start of the second half when each side shot three points in the first five minutes, though the two most notable plays were moments that didn’t yield scores – a close-range snapshot from Luke Duggan Murray that pulled across the St Lachtain’s goal and wide, and a wonderful hook from Mark Donnelly to deny James Kennefick a score after the wing-back rampaged forward with a strong run.
Those moments summed up St Lachtain’s determination and how Russell Rovers just weren’t quite at the pitch they needed, and that started to tell as six of the next eight points came from St Lachtain’s, including outstanding strikes from Alexander Rafter, Cathal Hickey and James Maher.
Duggan Murray’s two points dragged Russell Rovers back into contention just when it seemed like St Lachtain’s might pull away, and a couple of uncharacteristic fumbles in front of the Davin Stand prevented the Kilkenny club from tacking on game-clinching scores.
However just when it looked like they might leave themselves vulnerable to a late sucker-punch, Darragh Maher came off the bench to fire a crucial point and Darren Brennan became their 12th scorer of the day with a long-range free, confirmed a fifth win in six attempts for Kilkenny clubs at this level, and a first ever for the Freshford club.
St Lachtain’s: Darren Brennan (0-01); Simon Rafter, Criomhthann Bergin, Shane Dawson; Pádraig Donnelly, Brian Kennedy (0-01), Cathal Hickey (0-02); Brendan Quinn (0-01), Mark Donnelly (0-01); Alexander Rafter (0-03), Paddy Killeen (0-01), Cathal O’Leary (0-01); Shane Donnelly (1-01), James Maher (0-02), Liam Hickey (0-03, 0-01 free, 0-01 sideline)
Subs: Darragh Maher (0-01) for O’Leary (51), John Fitzpatrick for Maher (52), Cian Dawson for S Donnelly (57), Jerry Bergin for Rafter (60+1).
Russell Rovers: Ross Walsh; Eoghan O’Sullivan, Pierce Cummins, Kevin Tattan; Fintan Murray (0-01), Paul Lane, James Kennefick (0-01); Kieran Walsh, Ruairí Cummins; Luke Duggan Murray (0-02), Kevin Moynihan (0-01), Dan Ruddy; Brian Hartnett, Ciarán Sheehan (0-01), Josh Beausang (0-08, 0-06 frees, 0-01 65).
Subs: Mark O’Dwyer (0-01) for Lane (28), Jack McGrath (0-01) for Ruddy (half-time), Kevin O’Brien for Moynihan (57)
Referee: Peter Owens (Down)
