Rigney proud of Laois' Thurles heroics

Laois hurling manager Niall Rigney cut a happy figure despite his side's three-point loss to Limerick in last night's All-Ireland SHC Phase 3 qualifier at Semple Stadium.

Referring to his players' hunger, Rigney was full of praise for the commitment and dedication they showed through 2009 and felt it was encapsulated in last night's epic display.

The midlanders led for 59 minutes until a late Limerick flourish saw the Shannonsiders win through to an All-Ireland quarter-final against Dublin.

"They want to play for Laois, and they will play to the style of hurling we bring to them and the way we want them to play," Rigney enthused.

"They are so honest and they are full of pride and have great passion in the fact that they are honoured to play for Laois. That's all I've ever asked of them - to stand up and wear (the jersey) with a bit of pride and honesty and stick to the plan, and they did that."

Laois burst out of the blocks early in the game and led by 1-05 to 0-00 after six minutes - the "best possible start" according to their manager - however Rigney still lamented some aspects of his side's first half performance.

"It was a marvellous start but we were only three points up at half-time (1-09 to 0-09) and we should have been six up," he said.

"There's no point in nit-picking about this. We were in the game for the 70 minutes and those lads deserve huge, huge credit.

"I think a little bit of experience in the end told. We had five or six wides that should have been scores.

"Who gave us a ghost of a chance to come down here and put up a performance like that? The bookies had us 11/1 - there's a few of them shaking I'd say," he joked.

Rigney's Limerick counterpart Justin McCarthy was happy that his side pulled through in what proved to be quite a stiff test of their All-Ireland credentials.

"It was a case that we just had to dig in and not give them any ground," he said.

"As the game was going on we made a few moves and fellas came into the game and played that bit better.

"Then the backs started to settle a bit in the second half and with balls coming down (the field) we began to get scores."

Laois dominated the midfield sector in the opening half with sublime performances from Colin Delaney and James Walsh. However, the O'Moore men faded in the second half, coming under increased pressure in this area as Limerick began to get a foothold through Gavin O'Mahony and Donal O'Grady.

"You are in a no-win situation realistically," McCarthy conceded.

"Last week we ground out a win in Wexford and that was a tough game. Today we were going into the game against an unknown team. Having said that I have to give credit to the team that we were playing.

"We played as well as we were let early on and then Laois started to come at us and they got the scores as well which was important.

"I felt that we were just going to get our way back as the game was going on - and take it."

McCarthy praised Laois for their ball-winning capabilities and the progress they are clearly making under Rigney.

"We weren't let do much because they were winning all of the breaking ball. They were a lively team.

"You can talk about teams making progress and coming on in the hurling world, but I thought they were 'one team'.

"They were fairly fit and they were lively and they could win a ball on the ground as well as in the air. They weren't giving us our way basically.

"They were very good (despite the heavy rain). They knew that they were hurling well and we knew that we were up against it. That's the reality of it."