Chin the star as Leinster leave it late
THE inter-provincial hurling competition wasn’t played last year and at this rate, there is a real chance that it might not be played again.
A host of top inter-county stars were on view at MacDonagh Park in Nenagh yesterday but fewer than 100 people bothered to turn up and witness Leinster’s two-point victory over Connacht.
If GAA chiefs were looking for evidence that this format may have a future, this below-par semi-final certainly didn’t provide it, on or off the pitch.
The quality at times was disappointing given the talent on show, with the sides racking up as many wides (28) as scores over the course of 70-plus minutes.
There was also a long delay towards the end of the game, with nearly ten minutes of stoppage time played, after Dublin’s Ryan O’Dwyer collided with Matthew Keating.
Both players went off and it later emerged that O’Dwyer was removed to hospital for precautionary tests.
Given his history of head knocks — and the fact that he was viciously assaulted outside a Birmingham nightclub last year — that was a wise move on the part of the Leinster management.
Connacht, with their starting 15 comprised entirely of players from Galway, had their chances but when the dust settled, Leinster were through to a clash with Munster or Ulster in the final, and with Wexford talisman Lee Chin in superb form.
The fare in the first half rarely rose above the mundane, with Leinster 1-7 to 1-2 ahead at half-time in what was a repeat of the 2014 decider.
There were some decent goal chances at both ends in the opening period that either flashed wide or ended up in the side-netting but two green flags were raised in the first half.
The first of them was the opening score of the game — Chin taking a pass from Kilkenny’s Colin Fennelly before crashing a fine shot past James Skehill in the fifth minute.
Leinster were five points clear — 1-2 to 0-0 — before Connacht managed to open their account in the 13th minute, Conor Cooney registering their first score with a free.
Five minutes later, Joseph Cooney poked home a goal for Connacht to keep them in contention but Leinster picked up the pace and hit four of the five points approaching half-time to open up a significant interval lead.
Connacht battled back to level and looked good for victory when Leinster went down to 14 men — Fennelly dismissed in the 44th minute for an off-theball clash with Galway’s Paul Killeen.
But with Chin excellent, Leinster pushed on for the win as subs Ryan O’Dwyer, Gerry Keegan and Martin Kavanagh — with the final point of the game at the death — made contributions to the scoreboard.