Enniscorthy Rapparees 6-18 St. Anne’s (Rathangan) 1-17
Forty-three years of hurt was firmly put to bed as Enniscorthy Rapparees delivered in emphatic fashion to end their barren spell with a thumping 16 point victory over favourites St Anne’s in this Pettitt’s Wexford senior hurling championship final at Chadwicks Wexford Park.
St. Anne’s raced into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead inside the opening seven minutes, but it was the Rapps who took a step forward playing the quality hurling few expected. As they began to move the ball with style and accuracy they exposed gaping holes in the opposition defence.
While it was a Diarmuid O’Keeffe early point that kept St. Anne’s in front, a couple of Alan Tobin points kept the town side in touch. But with St. Anne’s relying heavily on Liam Óg McGovern in attack, they failed to turn this opening spell of play into further scores.
Rapp, still trailing 0-7 to 0-4 after 12 minutes, suddenly set the game alight. Moving the ball quickly out of defence through midfield, it was Alan Tobin who was picked up in space out on the right wing, with the big midfielder showing pace and skill as he moved through the defence to crash home a great 13th minute goal to bring the sides level, 1-4 to 0-7.
Although Darragh Furlong responded with a point, it was inspirational captain Kevin Foley who brought the sides back level, 0-8 to 1-5, at the first water break.
It was Rapps corner-forward Ricky Fox who crashed home a great goal from an acute angle on 17 minutes, and when Lennie Connolly followed with a smashing goal two minutes later, the eventual winners found themselves in new territory leading 3-6 to 0-8.
While St. Anne’s did manage to pull some points back through O’Keeffe, Dylan O’Brien and Liam Rochford, they still trailed 3-9 to 0-12 at the interval.
Rapparees quickly shredded the notion that they would sit back and protect their lead as they put their supporters at ease with an early second half scoring surge. Fox and Nick Doyle increased their lead with points, while O’Keeffe, just to show it was not to be his side’s day, missed out on a third free.
Just when one envisaged that St. Anne’s could summon up a recovery, the result was put beyond any doubt in the 40th minute when Oisín Pepper, having won possession some 30 metres from goal, created the space before firing superbly to the net, leaving his side leading 4-11 to 0-12.
In a game in which they were clinging on for so long, St. Anne’s needed something special, but at this stage the general consensus was that it was the Rapps day as they stormed all over the opposition who, despite an O’Keeffe goal from a 48th minute penalty, were unable to retrieve the situation.
Such was the quality of their hurling, the Rapps continued to flow forward, resulting in further goals from Jack Kelly - who capped a splendid overall display from centre-back with a solo effort - while Lennie Connolly managed his side’s sixth five minutes from the end, to cap what was a glorious day for the cathedral town side.
Enniscorthy Rapparees: A Larkin; N O'Connor, L Ryan, B Edwards; A Roche, J Kelly (1-1), K Foley (0-3); A Tobin (1-3), J Peare; D Redmond, N Doyle (0-1), R Mahon (0-3, 0-2 frees); L Connolly (2-1), R Fox (1-2), O Pepper (1-1). Subs: T Mahon (0-3 frees) for R Mahon (51), D McVeigh for Connolly (57), K Ryan for Pepper (58), T Wall for Redmond(59), O Carty for Doyle (60).
St. Anne's: P Brennan; E Ryan, L Schokoman, K Cloney; F O'Driscoll, B Kavanagh, B Moore; D O'Keeffe (1-5, 1-0 pen, 0-4 frees), A Rochford; M Furlong (0-3), L Og McGovern (0-1), L Rochford (0-2); D Furlong (0-2), D O'Brien (0-4), J Fogarty, Subs: M Fogarty for D Furlong (42), P O'Keefe for M Furlong (45), K Whelan for Moore (58).
Referee: J Owens (Askamore/Kilrush).
