Late Meath surge sees them capture Division 2B hurling title

The Royal County went into the final against Donegal as the hottest of favourites after winning all five round robin games

Sun, 02 Apr, 2023 - 18:56

Kevin Egan

Meath, Roscommon and Cavan all wrapped up promotion from their respective divisions of the Allianz Hurling League over the weekend, with Cavan prevailing thanks to an injury time point from Rian Delaney, while Meath and Roscommon both prevailed with plenty to spare.

Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada in Carrick on Shannon was the destination for Meath’s clash with Donegal in the Division 2B decider Sunday, with the Royal County going in as the hottest of favourites after winning all five round robin games, including a 1-23 to 0-16 win over Donegal in Navan.

Yet it was only in the latter stages that they clinched victory here, as Jack Regan, Seanie Geraghty, Daire Shine (two) and Stephen Morris all fired over in the final stages to help secure their 0-20 to 0-14 victory.

A tight first half saw Rúairí Campbell and Jack Regan trade several frees, with Meath eventually taking an 0-10 to 0-8 lead into the break.

Donegal struck the opening three scores of the second half to edge in front but Regan landed Meath’s next four scores, the first ending an 18-minute scoreless spell. Three Liam McKinney efforts helped Donegal get back to within one with 62 on the clock but Meath sealed promotion.

In Saturday’s 3A decider, Roscommon had things all their own way in Navan as they eased to a 2-17 to 0-15 win over Armagh.

It wasn’t the 20-point hammering that Armagh endured when the two sides met in the Hyde three weeks ago, but they were put on the back foot from the early stages of this tie, as a goal from Conor Mulry and two outstanding points from Mickey Joe Egan gave the Connacht county a flying start with the aid of the breeze.

Missed goal chances were the story of the first half as Enda Lawless did brilliantly to deny Tomás Galvin on two occasions at one end, while at the other, Fintan Woods kept Armagh in touch by blocking efforts from Mulry and Adam Donnelly.

Armagh weren’t without hope at the half-time break, 1-9 to 0-6 adrift with a decent wind advantage to come, but they never got any momentum going in the second half and were undone by continued inaccuracy, including from some very scorable frees.

Paddy Fallon, Mickey Joe Egan and Eoin Fitzgerald were in outstanding form up front for Roscommon and they struck some wonderful points, with Fallon also setting up Egan for a goal in the 69th minute that made life much more comfortable for the winners through ten minutes of stoppage time.

There were nine additional minutes in the 3B final at Abbotstown, and these were much more tense and dramatic, as Cavan just about held on to snatch a 0-17 to 0-16 win over Leitrim thanks to a clinching score from Rian Delaney.

The Breffni County have brought on board a handful of outside players that made an immense difference to their prospects this year, and that was certainly in evidence Saturday afternoon as former Kilkenny minor hurler Canice Maher (0-9, 0-3f, 0-1 65) and Nicky Kenny of Cuala (0-7) were responsible for their entire total until Delaney’s winner in the fifth minute of overtime.

Cavan were the better side in the first half and were well worth their 0-11 to 0-8 half-time lead, with midfielder Gavin O’Hagan carrying the scoring load for Leitrim.

Two points from Kenny after the break pushed the lead out to four points and that was still the margin between the teams going into the last ten minutes, when the rain started to get much heavier.

Leitrim made a real surge, however, and a point from Joe Murray, a long-range score from Michael Dervan and frees from O'Hagan and Declan Murray tied up the game, before substitute Delaney pounced for the winning score, making it 0-17 to 0-16 at the final whistle.