Kilkenny’s last chance at collecting some silverware for the 2017 season comes down to Wednesday in Naas.
While the victories weren’t really coming for Kilkenny in the league this season, they’ve stacked up in the Provincial Towns Plate since dropping into the competition in February.
An away victory over Tullamore (12-5) was followed up with a 27-25 victory over Portlaoise at Foulkstown. The real crunch for Kilkenny came in their semi-final fixture last weekend against Longford. With Kilkenny holding a first half lead, the second half turned into a real slugfest with a Jake McDonald penalty at the death separating the sides by a single point to progress to the final.
Dundalk entered the plate at the second round stage in March, defeating Portarlington on the road (29-27) before jumping straight into a semi-final against Naas with Newbridge conceding their third round fixture. A 26-14 home victory set up their final berth and thus Dundalk and Kilkenny meet this Wednesday night.
The sides have met twice already in the last year through their Division 1A fixtures, Dundalk getting the better of Kilkenny on both meetings.
It’s an 8pm kick off at Naas RFC and we’ll be looking ahead to the game in more detail after the weekend.
