Kilkenny march into Leinster final

Dublin 0-10 Kilkenny 3-16

Brian Cody's Kilkenny marched on to a Leinster final meeting with either Offaly or Wexford, with little sweat broken from their clash with Dublin at Nowlan Park.

A Mossy McGrane free gave the visitors a two point advantage after five minutes, however the reigning All-Ireland champions held ascendancy at the break thanks to a 20th minute Conor Phelan goal and a brace of points from young talent Tommy Walsh.

With Richard Mullally lording it in the Kilkenny halfbacks, refusing to let any ball break through to the Dublin full-forward line, the Cats struck two second-half goals, within ten minutes of each other to deflate any hope of the metropolitans' first championship win over them in 61 years.

Henry Shefflin blasted to the net on 49 minutes and full-forward Eddie Brennan undid a wilting defence to lob the stranded Brendan McLoughlin.

A disappointing second period for the Dubs was compounded with little impact made by starlets Conal Keaney and Damien Russell, leaving a disheartening 2-9 scored against their young defence to see them into tomorrow's round-robin draw.