PURR FOR THE COURSE Cats see off underdogs

two frees from TJ Reid and a point from the hard-working Paddy Deegan but Limerick, with Shane Dowling and Kyle Hayes doing well, did not let them get too far ahead.

The sides were all square by the midway stage of the half but while chances flowed, the scores did not.

Limerick shot 13 wides in the first half alone and were grateful to goalkeeper Nickie Quaid for saving Michael Fennelly’s close-range shot after 23 minutes.

Kilkenny fared better as the half wore on, helped in no small way by the hard work of Fennelly, Deegan and Walter Walsh.

Walsh had a good spell in front of the posts, scoring three good points as Kilkenny stretched into a threepoint lead at 0-8 to 0-5 by the 33rd minute.

However, they couldn’t shake off Limerick for long. With Hayes and Dowling continuing to trouble, the underdogs were only two points down at the break, 0-10 to 0-8. Limerick were quicker out of the traps in the second half and with Peter Casey (0-2) leading the way, they took the game to Kilkenny. They were on level terms by the 44th minute at 0-12 each but soon found themselves chasing the game again after that late Kilkenny scoring run. The Cats never looked back, even if Limerick dragged themselves into the reckoning one more time. Dowling with a free, Barry Nash and Pat Ryan helped to close the gap to two points with time almost up but injury time scores from Reid and Lester Ryan sealed Kilkenny’s place in Monday morning’s draw.