In an epic score fest at UPMC Nowlan Park, that saw an impressive Dublin comeback quashed by a timely strike from Billy Ryan, Kilkenny safely progressed through to the Leinster final to defend their title.
With 48 scores, including Kilkenny finding the net five times, there was a lot to digest. The Cats led 4-12 to 0-10 at the halfway point, but the visiting Dubs managed to claw it back to within two points towards the end before a late Billy Ryan goal finally killed off their fightback.
Kilkenny boss Derek Lyng says the 16-point lead was indicative they would take the win, but admits it was hard to stop the Dublin momentum, which he didn't underestimate.
"I knew myself it was going to be a battle so when you go 16 up you do expect to win the game," Lyng told RTÉ Sport. ,"You should be seeing it out and we just about did it."
Lyng had to make two changes due to injury for Cian Kenny and Adrian Mullen in the second half, which he admits may have contributed to Dublin's ability to claw back the 16-point lead.
"We switched off for a while and probably lost our shape a bit when we made the changes, and you know we had to make those changes, we got a couple of bangs.
"Then the momentum was with Dublin and we struggled to wrestle that back, and they're a quality team and they've shown that this year so far."
Highlights: Kilkenny 5-19 Dublin 3-21
Lyng does admit some disappointment in the run that Dublin managed but says the wind may have been more of a factor than people realised.
"We had to really dig in towards the end of the second-half to get the win.
"We would be very disappointed in the purple patch Dublin got and the run they got went on a lot longer than we would have hoped for, but to be fair to the lads that dug in, we got the goal, we worked a couple of scores and got over.
"It was a strong breeze there which probably looking on you mightn't realise it but it played its part too."
Dublin boss Niall Ó Ceallacháin felt that despite the Cats opening up a 16-point lead, his side played well in the first half and there was a lot that went right.
"It might sound strange, but I thought we were hurling well for long periods. You can't concede four goals like we did and not expect to be well down at half-time... But there was a lot actually going well in that first half," he told RTÉ Sport.
It could have been a comeback for the ages had his side managed to pull it off, but Ó Ceallacháin revealed that he and his team were honest in the changing room at the break.
"Every stat you could look at, it was actually a very, very tight first half... We just said that to them and just said it for what it was. That the four individual errors, we should have been better in each of those four goals.
"We have to be better than that. But loads of other parts of the game were basically going well.... We knew could cause them a bit of trouble."
Ó Ceallacháin is keen to emphasise that despite a strong second-half performance he felt the win was there for the taking.
"We're here to win games.
"Huge resistance in character shown to get back from 16 to 2 for sure. But it was also there in the last few minutes to be seen out, and we just fell short there."
