Waterford bring up half-century as they run riot against Laois

The biggest cheer of the afternoon was reserved for the Tadhg de Burca when he made way on 49 minutes in his first competitive outing since the 2020 All-Ireland final

Waterford’s Tadhg de Burca is tackled by John Lennon of Laois. Picture: INPHO/Ken Sutton

Waterford 7-31 Laois 0-19

Waterford romped to a 33-point win on the day that Tadhg De Burca returned to inter-county hurling after a 14-month absence.

The biggest cheer of the afternoon was reserved for the Clashmore/Kinsalebeg defender when he made way on 49 minutes. It was his first competitive outing since the 2020 All Ireland final against Limerick when he suffered the second cruciate knee ligament injury of his career.

His first touch was a crossfield pass for a Ciaran Kirwan point. it was as if he was never away.

"Tadhg came back in really good nick didn't he?" remarked Déise manager Liam Cahill. "He's a serious man the way he has prepared behind the scenes to come back from that horrific injury in the 2020 All Ireland. We are really thrilled for him that he's back. To come back and have his hurling as crisp as it was today is testament to the man."

This game turned into a training exercise for the hosts. Four goals in four minutes at the end of the first half ended the game as a contest. Laois got within two points by the half-hour before Waterford hit them with a hurricane of 4-5 before the break. 5-12 to 0-11 at the change of ends.

2020 All-Star Stephen Bennett shot 3-8, including two second half penalties, while Patrick Curran helped himself to 1-7 from play. Austin Gleeson delighted the home fans with a postage stamp finish among a haul of 1-3. Newbies Carthach Daly and Ciaran Kirwan also found the net for the goal-hungry hosts.

Twelve different players were on the scoresheet. The Déise created 12 chances for green flags and put away seven of them as they tore the Laois defence to shreds.

Cahill added: "We look to develop this ruthlessness in our play and we're happy today that when we got the chance to kick on and hurt Laois, we went about our business properly. That has to happen more often with this Waterford team to go to the places we believe we can go to."

Kirwan claimed 1-4 on his first league start as the target man carried on his impressive Fitzgibbon Cup form with WIT.  Mark Fitzgerald and Ian Beecher got their league debuts off the bench while rookie midfielder Carthach Daly continues to impress. 

Laois nearly shocked the Déise in the All-Ireland qualifiers last summer so this landslide loss was a huge setback to Seamus Cheddar Plunkett.

“A tough defeat to take, particularly after a really solid performance last weekend. We wanted to build on that and we wanted to come down here and give the same consistent, spirited performance. The goals obviously killed us. We probably just conceded them a little bit easily and that’s a little bit disappointing."

The visitors finished with 13 men as corner forward Ben Conroy saw red for a high challenge on Tom Barron and full-back Sean Downey got a black.

“Ben was going in to dispossess and to hold him up. Sometimes these things happen. I think they’re harsh but the rules are there. I think a lot of that physicality has gone out of hurling, to be honest with you, but they are the rules and we’ve just got to play with that."

Scorers for Waterford: Stephen Bennett 3-8 (2-0 pens, 6fs), P Curran 1-7, C Kirwan 1-4, A Gleeson 1-3, C Daly 1-1, T Barron 0-2, DJ Foran, M Fitzgerald, I Beecher, J Fagan, J Prendergast, B Power 0-1 each.

Scorers for Laois: S Maher 0-8 (5fs, 1 65), R King 0-4, E Rowland 0-2 (2fs), R Mullaney, F Fennell, S Bergin, W Dunphy, A Corby 0-1 each.

WATERFORD: B Nolan; C Gleeson, C Prunty, I Daly; J Fagan, T de Búrca, T Barron; C Daly, P Curran; J Prendergast, Stephen Bennett, DJ Foran; C Kirwan, M Kiely, A Gleeson.

Subs: B Power for Kiely (22), D Lynch for De Burca (49), M Fitzgerald for A Gleeson (52), I Beecher for Prendergast (55), D Lyons for Prunty (61).

LAOIS: E Rowland; D Conway, S Downey, D Hartnett; P Delaney, L O'Connell, R Mullaney; F Fennell, J Kelly; S Bergin, J Lennon, R King; B Conroy, W Dunphy, S Maher 

Subs: J Keyes for Lennon (HT), C Phelan for Bergin (HT), PJ Scully for Dunphy (HT), A Corby for Kelly (45), P Dunne for Delaney (61).

Referee: P O'Dwyer (Carlow)