Kilkenny lived up to their favourites tag in this ESB Leinster minor hurling championship semi-final against Carlow as the Cats ran out comfortable winners by 1-16 to 0-7.

Kilkenny 1-16
Carlow 0-7

The sides were evenly matched throughout the opening exchanges as they exchanged points and with 23 minutes gone they were level at 0-6 apiece.

However, with just six minutes to go to the interval, Mark O’Dwyer scored the only goal of the game as he cracked home a three-pointer from close range.

Kilkenny added a further point before the break to go in leading by four points and this seemed to have a negative effect on the Carlow boys as quite frankly they didn’t turn up for the second half.

The Cats hit sic points without reply to ease in front as O’Dwyer, Joe Brennan (4) and Michael Moloney all found the target to put the game beyond any doubt.

Carlow only registered one score in the second half and that was a Denis Murphy free, his sixth of the afternoon, but there was to be no fairy tale ending for the Barrowsiders as the Cats march into the final.

Kilkenny - E Murphy; D Healy, M Walsh, A Cuddihy; R Doyle, C Fogarty, E Malone; C Kenny 0-2, M Maloney 0-2; P McCarthy, M O’Dwyer 1-2, R Hickey; D Purcell 0-1, T Breen 0-1, J Brennan 0-8. Subs - C Maher for McCarthy (40), J Gannon for Kenny (45), M Gaffney for Hickey (47), M Fitzgerald for Malone (51), S Phelan for Cuddihy (51).

Carlow - N Roberts; J Hughes, G Kelly, J Ryan; D English, P Kehoe, T Nolan; S Kelly 0-1, P McElligott; R Kent, E Byrne, D Murphy 0-6; K McCabe, J Doyle, M Dalton. Subs - JM Nolan for T Nolan (40), E Ruth for Kehoe (56).

REF - M. Mannion (Westmeath).