Easy peasy for Holycross Ballycahill who swat aside poor Borris-Ileigh to retain U21 crown

County U21A Hurling Championship Final

Holycross Ballycahill 1-23

Borris-Ileigh 0-8

Holycross Ballycahill claimed back-to-back U21 honours on St Stephen’s Day in Cappawhite, easily accounting for a poor Borris-Ileigh effort as the underage juggernaut of the Mid Tipperary club continues unabated.

The class of the Holycross Ballycahill team was far too much for North champions Borris-Ileigh to handle, with the slickness of interplay, scoring prowess, and defence solidity something to behold on the day.

A strong first-half showing essentially killed the contest, with the result decided from a long way out. Holycross started like a train by racing into a 0-5 to nil lead, and while Borris did keep it tight and manage to reduce the arrears to two points by the 21st minute, seven unanswered scores from the reigning champions had the result beyond doubt.

Running riot again were the Ryans for Holycross in the form of Messrs Robbie and Tiarnan; the county duo hitting 1-16 between them in the victory that was impressive all over the field, it must be said.

The speed of the Holycross restarts was noteworthy all game, with James O’Dwyer finding his men so well throughout, and that was clear in the first minutes of the game as the slickness of the Mid champions put them five points clear by the ten-minute mark.

Robbie Ryan’s trio of frees and scores from Tiarnan Ryan and Jimmie Lahart did the damage, and it took Borris-Ileigh 12 minutes to register a score with a Paddy McCormack free after strong running from Mikey Ryan gave him a tap-over effort.

Borris settled after that, to be fair, and traded blow-for-blow with Cathal Kennedy, Eoin Boyle, and a pair of quickfire beauties from play from Paddy McCormack putting them well in contention at 0-8 to 0-6 behind after 21 minutes.

However, the ability of Holycross to string together big scoring bursts was on full view with seven points in succession up to the half-time whistle flying over the lat. 

Robbie Ryan burst into life in terms of scoring from play with three class efforts from range, along with James Doyle, Tiarnan Ryan, and Liam Doyle scores to give the reigning champs a hefty 0-15 to 0-6 lead.

The chances missed were fairly significant, too, in the first, with the teams hitting seven wides apiece in the first half, but it became clear in the early minutes that the contest was no more than processionary in nature.

Holycross’s shooting was of a poor standard in the opening minutes of the restart, with four wides registered quickly. The killer blow soon came, though, when James Doyle turned down an easy point opportunity to go for the major, feeding in Tiarnan Ryan, who slid home the only goal of the game and confirmed victory with over 20 minutes to play.

The remainder was comfortable for Holycross as Borris-Ileigh were unable to find the answers in attack and would only register two further points in the game from Cathal Kennedy and Paddy McCormack.

Holycross scored some fine points in the final quarter, but the pick of them came from Evan Morris in the 52nd minute when he gathered possession inside his own 21 before a powerful run and link-up play with Jimmie Lahart led to the full-back lashing over a score from range, highlighting the superior play and performance on the day.

A deserved retention of their U21 crown, the Holycross Ballycahill locomotive continues to gather pace underage. You could sense that there would be no room for complacency after the U19 semi-final defeat to Cashel King Cormacs a few months back.

For Borris-Ileigh, it was a case of damage limitation in the end, but they had a fine year all told and just came up against a team the likes of which we haven’t seen at this grade in a long time, if ever.

Scorers: Holycross Ballycahill: Robbie Ryan (0-12, 0-8f), Tiarnan Ryan 1-4, Jimmie Lahart 0-2, Sean Ryan, James Doyle, Liam Doyle, Evan Morris, Eoin Craddock all 0-1 each.

Borris-Ileigh: Paddy McCormack (0-4, 0-1f), Cathal Kennedy 0-2, Lar Stapleton, Eoin Boyle 0-1 each.

Holycross Ballycahill: James O’Dwyer; Cathal O’Reilly, Evan Morris, Sean McGrath; Daire Ryan, Tadhg Gould, Liam Doyle; Tiarnan Ryan, James Doyle; Eoghan Hickey, Eoin Craddock, Robbie Ryan; Sean Ryan, Jimmie Lahart, Audie Lohan.

Subs used: Tony Maher for Lohan (46); Jack Lahart for McGrath (50); Tadgh Ryan for Hickey (54); Jake Galvin for J Doyle (56); Rory Fleming for D Ryan (57).

Borris-Ileigh: Archie Delaney; David Rabbitte, Patrick Ryan, Eamon Groome; Michael Kennedy, Tom Delaney, Michael Ryan; Jack Bevans, Razuk Atik; Eoin Boyle, Paddy McCormack, Cathal Kennedy; Darragh Chute, Lar Stapleton, Eoin Ryan.

Subs used: Patrick Brett for Chute (HT); Jack Gould for Stapleton (41); Harry Gould for M Kennedy (56).

Referee: Ciaran O’Donovan (Burgess)