Minors exit after Laois cruise home

Saturday's Leinster MHC second round game between Meath and Laois made for painful viewing from a Royal County perspective. The scoreline fails to reflect just how far off the pace Meath hurling is, from the evidence of this game, at under-age level. For a more accurate snapshot, the state of the scoreboard with 10 minutes remaining would indicate what unfolded at Pairc Tailteann on Saturday afternoon. At that stage Laois were ahead by 2-19 to 0-7. And this was a back door game for Laois after they lost to Westmeath in the last round. For the record, Westmeath's reward for beating Laois was a home tie against All-Ireland champions Kilkenny and the Lake County gave a battling display at Cusack Park, Mullingar. Kilkenny escaped with a 2-10 to 1-11 victory on Saturday. Meath negotiated Kildare in the previous round in what was a lower tier game between the weaker counties in the competition. And weakness was very much in evidence on Saturday as Meath were out-hurled and out-muscled for most of the opening 30 minutes. They were second in most departments against a Laois team that rarely had to extend themselves too much as they picked off the scores with ease. Laois dictated from the throw-in and had 1-4 on the scoreboard inside five minutes as Stephen Maher, Ciaran Hyland and Ryan Peacock all pointed, Charles Dwyer also sent over and found the net. That set the trend for the remainder of a half where Meath failed to score from play although five pointed Ciaran Fitzsimons (pictured) frees took the bare look off the scoreboard. Laois were ahead by 2-12 to 0-5 at the interval with the second goal arriving around the midway point of the half when goalkeeper Conor Flynn misjudged a speculative free from Maher. The sliotar barely trickled over the line, but Maher took his first-half tally to 1-6 in a completely one-sided opening period. Laois had four more points in the bag scarcely two minutes into the second-half while Meath collected two yellow cards. Half-time substitute Dylan Keenan and defender Sean McGee were both cautioned. Meath also managed a point from play when Jack Regan split the posts and Fitzsimons added another free on the way to 0-7 to 2-19 third-quarter deficit. There was a type of bail-out for the beleaguered Royals in the closing stages when Laois eased up. It's a mistake the Laois players will not make again as Meath finished with a little bit of a flourish that produced goals from Toher, Conor Murray, Fitzsimons and Regan. The dreadful plight of Meath hurling at the moment was emphasised when the half-time and full-time scoreline from the Christy Ring Cup at Ballycran was also announced. At half-time Meath trailed Down by 0-1 to 1-12 while at full-time they were adrift by 1-7 to 1-18. Another bad day for Meath hurling. Laois - E Rowland; P Bergin, W Young, D Palmer; P Whelan, B Duggan, C Gleeson; M Collier, K Lawlor; R Peacock (0-4), S Maher (1-9 seven frees), C Hyland (0-1); PJ Scully, C Dwyer (1-5 one free), G Burke. Subs - D Lyanch for Bergin, MJ Lawlor for Burke both 46 mins, E Fleming for Rowland 48m, MJ Dunphy for Maher, C Lewis for Palmer both 57m. Meath - Conor Flynn (Kildalkey); Brendan Wright (Dunderry), Ger Foley (Killyon), Andrew Fagan (Kildalkey); Sean Magee (Trim), James Kelly (Kiltale), Conor O'Shea (Dunderry); Ciaran Fitzsimons (Clann na nGael 1-7 six frees), Aaron Ennis (Clann na nGael); Cathal McCabe (Kiltale), James Toher (Trim 1-0), Vinny Moore (Navan O'Mahonys); Killian O'Brien (Wolfe Tones), Conor Murray (Gaeil Colmcille 1-0), Jack Regan (Kiltale 1-1). Subs - Dylan Keenan (Dunderry) for Fagan half-time, David Harmon (Kildalkey) for O'Shea 40 mins, James Reilly (Drumree) for Ennis 43m, Stephen Coogan (Dunderry) for O'Brien 45m, Referee - Brian Brady (Louth).