Mount Leinster Rangers GAA Club

All-Ireland club champions Ballyhale Shamrocks were forced to call on all their experience to see off the gutsy challenge of Carlow’s Mount Leinster Rangers in the opening round of the Leinster club hurling championship at Dr Cullen Park.

Ballyhale Shamrocks...1-14
Mount Leinster Rangers.0-12

The home side, who went into the game as rank outsiders, made life extremely difficult for Ballyhale before the Kilkenny side’s greater experience and guile saw them through. Hurling with real passion the Rangers built from the back with Gary Doyle, Edward and Richard Coady driving them forward. The other backs of Hugh Paddy Byrne, Tomas Murphy, and Brian Nolan more than holding their own. At mid field James Hickey and Pauric Nolan came up against a formidable outfit but acquitted themselves with honours. James's line ball a wonderful start to the scoring. Up front we missed the scoring prowess of Sean Michael Murphy but as on county final day Willie Hickey stood up and gave a display that was probably the best on show from both teams and that is saying something. David Phelan made life very difficult for the full back when moved in to full forward and John Coady won hard ball all day. Michael Ralph and Derek Byrne were working hard to make an impression and in the corner Denis Murphy was accurate with placed balls and chipped in with a useful point also. Subs Colm Byrne and Sean Michael Murphy and Andy Hickey also made their contribution when they came on.
Ballyhale, who were once again without the injured duo of Henry Shefflin and James ’Cha’ Fitzpatrick, made a dream start when their captain Patrick Reid pounced for the only goal after the Rangers’ defence had failed to deal adequately with a TJ Reid free.

However, the Carlow champions refused to wilt and matched their much vaunted opponents score for score for the rest of the half, with only two points separating the sides at the interval, 1-5 to 0-6.

Within four minutes of the restart, points from Willie Hickey and Denis Murphy had levelled the game and Rangers supporters in the 2,500 crowd began to dream of a famous upset. But with TJ Reid in fine form from placed balls, Ballyhale regained their composure and eventually won by five points.

This was a proud day to be from Carlow and a proud day to be a Ranger. It shows the level these guys want to be at when they were disappointed not to have been even closer or overturned the All Ireland Champions. To all player and mentors well done and many thanks for the great year so far.

PREVIEW: Leinster Club SHC
Mount Leinster Rangers v Ballyhale Shamrocks
Sunday, Dr Cullen Park, 3pm

31, 22, 11, 25, 10, 3. No, the would-be Nostradamus has not gone completely mad and furnished you tonight’s winning Lotto numbers!
The numbers above are the margin of victory in the six previous Kilkenny v Carlow clashes in the Leinster Club hurling championship!
Significantly, perhaps, that ‘three-pointer’ was just two years ago, the famous day in Dr. Cullen Park when a cracking ‘Red’ Brian Murphy goal almost torpedoed Naomh Eoin to victory over reigning All-Ireland champions James Stephens and one of the biggest shocks in hurling.
The Village, thanks to the wise hurling head of Brian McEvoy, chiselled out a few crucial late points to escape to victory and subsequently retained their Leinster title before falling to a Joe Canning powered Portumna in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Now it is Mount Leinster Rangers’ turn to host the reigning All-Ireland champions in Dr. Cullen Park, the holders of the Tommy Moore Cup on this occasion being the stylish Ballyhale Shamrocks who last Sunday in Nowlan Park created their own special piece of history.
You see, on the previous three occasions the Fennelly-driven Shamrocks won the All-Ireland Club title they failed to retain their Kilkenny title; the present generation are now one-up on their predecessors!
And that stunning county final victory over St Martin’s was accomplished with their two best hurlers confined to viewing proceedings from the sideline. Not only the Shamrocks best hurlers, Henry Shefflin and Cha Fitzpatrick are two of the best hurlers in the country and even on crutches Henry made an attempt to control a stray sliotar!
Watching the deferred showing of the Noreside final, the superb closing seven minutes must rank as one of the greatest exhibitions of point-scoring ever produced in a sustained burst of hurling excellence. Battling Martin’s had reduced the arrears to 1-13 to 1-10, but barely had the notion of a surprise result resurfaced when the Reid brothers and Colin Fennelly shot four fabulous points inside three minutes, shot three more before the final whistle.
1-20 the All-Ireland champions ended up (1-16 procured by the three Reids) and that high points tally is the Shamrock’s norm. Since the quarter-final win over Carrickshock in the Kilkenny champion-ship last year, through the subsequent successful Leinster and All-Ireland campaigns the Shamrocks have kept the white flag waving. Expect the same on Sunday.
Our concentration to date has been on our Kilkenny visitors and designedly so, for whatever chance Mount Leinster Rangers have it is, like Myshall two years ago, to come in as rank outsiders and hurl with abandon against their more vaunted opposition.

Taken from the Nationalist Newspaper sport section writen by Leo McGough

Mount Leinster Rangers are Senior Hurling champions for 2007. The defeated neighbours St Mullins in the final. In what wasn't a classic hurling match Rangers did enough to see off a dogged challenge from St Mullins. Rangers had the best of the early exchanges and raced in to a 4 point lead. They gave away some easy free however and St. Mullins pegged them back to level at the break. Rangers started the second half with some good scores before St. Mullins goaled to take the lead for the first time. Rangers responded positively however and with Willie Hickey on top form came back in to the game. The score of the game came when Sean Michael Murphy goaled with a score that was worth the entrance price. The ball came over his head and as the goalie advanced the quick thinking Murphy palmed the ball over the goalie and into the net. St Mullins fought hard for the final few minutes but couldn't get the goal that they needed. Well done to the Rangers for putting two titles back to back. There was some great displays all over the field but Willie Hickey, Edward and Richard Coady, Tomas Murphy and for that goal alone Sean Michael Murphy get special mention. Let the celebrations begin.

Congratulations to the Senior Hurlers on winning the Kilkenny League Final. Another great result for these bunch of lads. Lets hope our Minor Hurlers and Junior Footballers will complete what has been so far a brilliant year.

If anybody has any pictures or stories about the club please email them to info@mlrgaa.com