Kildare captain backs Lilies to come back 'stronger than ever' after Dubs defeat
Kildare came up well short, 3-24 to 1-19, when they faced Dublin in Round 2 of the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship in Parnell Park
“Obviously Dublin are a very good team, hurled very well there today. Unfortunately, through periods of the game, maybe sometimes we couldn't match them. I'm not sure there was any reason for that. We'll go back into the dressing room and we have two weeks now to settle ourselves and prepare for the next game. Not our day today, but I trust in the lads that we'll be back together again, stronger than ever,” the words of Kildare captain Rian Boran after The Lilies' 11-point defeat to Dublin in Round 2 of the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship.
The eventual comfort of Dublin’s victory could not have been foreseen throughout the opening 25 minutes of this game as these teams went toe-to-toe. Thanks to a free-flowing officiating and therefore game, there were clashes all over the field and The Lilies were holding their own.
Boran added, “In the last couple of minutes of the first half, they seemed to play quite loose hurling. If they hurled well, we were possibly giving them a little bit too much space. We have mentioned before that we practice on the separation of the backs and forwards and how not to create it and how to stay up with the forwards. That will put pressure on them. I think it's something else that we'll have to look at again in the next couple of days.”
The difference between the teams in that crucial stretch before the break was shooting quality and that will encourage and disappoint in equal measure. On one hand, Brian Dowling’s men looked much more of a physical match for The Dubs compared to their Championship meeting in 2025, but also should have kept pace in this game much better were it not for a fatal dry spell in front of the posts.
“There was a big gap last year,” Boran said. “Credit to our management and the lads around me, they've put in the work to close that gap now as well. Unfortunately, the work probably wasn't enough on the day.”
The Kildare captain had his own physical match-up to worry about too. The Naas man tussled with the hulking figure of John Hetherton throughout this game with The Dubs looking for the St Vincent’s forward plenty of times throughout his 50 or so minutes on the field.
When asked about the match-up, Boran smiled: “I can't say I enjoyed it too much. He's a great hurler, great hand, very physical. It's just great to be able to put yourself up against a lad like that and try and do battle with him.”
What's difference in the Leinster Championship compared to the level Kildare have played before?
“Definitely the intensity. Myself being a back, the intensity of the forwards. There was less hounding and less tracking maybe in the division below. I just think they're slightly bigger, slightly faster. It's just harder, is how I would have thought (about it),” Boran replied.
The task of achieving a Leinster Championship win doesn’t get any easier for Kildare who face Galway on Saturday, May 9 in Cedral St Conleths Park at 3:30pm. The Tribesmen have two wins from their two games with victories over Offaly and a 15-point margin over Kilkenny.
Boran concluded, “You can recover well and hopefully look forward to another huge game. I think we're definitely coming into the nice warm weather now. There's nothing we'd rather do than go outside and hurl against the wall. I think over the next couple of days we'll settle ourselves again, we'll calm our heads. There's no doubt we definitely look forward to the Galway game now in two weeks.”
The most concerning part of this game for Kildare has to be the injuries that were suffered both during and in the build-up to this fixture. Last year’s Joe McDonagh Cup Player of the Year Cian Boran is out for the foreseeable following surgery while David Qualter, who had to be stretchered three minutes into this game, looks set for another lengthy stretch on the sideline.
The loss of a standout member of their wing-back line and their primary free-taker is a huge setback for a Kildare side already fighting for their lives in Leinster.