City rivals chase Leinster Schools glory in Kilkenny derby

Who will grab the local bragging rights this time around?

For a 14th time St Kieran’s College and Kilkenny CBS will meet in the Leinster PPS senior hurling Corn Uí Dhúill final on Wednesday afternoon with major provincial silverware up for grabs once again.

St Kieran’s again come into the game as defending All-Ireland champions as they look to back up their hugely successful win in this corresponding fixture 12 months ago and win back to back Leinster senior crowns.

The famed Kilkenny school were in relentless form when scoring a 2-21 to 0-5 victory over their neighbours. They continued that momentum all the way to Croke Park on St Patrick’s Weekend where they won the Croke Cup on the back of an extra-time success over St Raphael’s College of Loughrea.

St Kieran’s will be looking to win the Leinster title for a 59th time and while they may be fancied to do so, you can expect a much different affair to the meeting in Kilkenny HQ a year ago.

For a start, Kieran’s only have a handful of players still underage including the likes of Evan Murphy (Dicksboro), Ed Lauhoff (James Stephens), James O’Neill (St Martin’s), Sean Deely (James Stephens), Ciallin Brennan (Tullaroan) and Bill McDermott (James Stephens).

Along similar lines, Kilkenny CBS also only carry a couple of players that played in last year’s final as they look to win a first title in over a decade - Patrick Purcell (Barrow Rangers), Donnachadh Hennessy (Dicksboro), Matthew Bolger (St Martin’s), Niall Drennan (Galmoy), Anthony Clifford (Dicksboro) and Luke Staunton (De Le Salle).

Relatively new teams, they are pretty evenly matched with CBS gaining the upper hand when the schools met in the group stages before Christmas as they claimed a 3-18 to 3-15 victory with Patrick Lacey and Zak Scanlon to the fore for the James’s Street outfit.

Kieran’s have a habit of improving as the season goes on however and, in the likes of Jake Mullen, Eoghan Cahill and Noah Manogue, they certainly have the firepower to do damage if given the ball.

As well as the Leinster victory, the reward for the winners is an automatic entry to the All-Ireland semi-final at the start of March while the losers will have to lick their wounds for a quarter-final clash with the losers of the Connacht final between Colaiste Bhaile Chlair and Presentation College Athenry, a game which will be played this Friday evening.

Hopefully, a decent spectacle awaits with a big following from both schools expected in UPMC Nowlan Park.