Clare and Galway are through to the All-Ireland minor hurling semi-finals after victories at FBD Semple Stadium in Thurles on Monday.
Galway had their front line of Brian Callanan, Cillian Roche and Harry Holmes to thank in their quarter-final against Dublin as the trio’s 3-10 contributed significantly to the Tribesmen’s 3-18 to 2-18 victory over the Dubs.
Galway made a great start thanks to three successive Callanan frees and the full forward also scored their opening goal on six minutes. Dublin settled with four of the next five points, but another flurry of Galway points and a goal by Roche gave them a lead of 10 points.
Dublin stormed back with goals from O’Flynn and Darragh Kilduff reducing the lead to just a point, 2-12 to 2-11. Soon afterwards, however, corner forward Holmes pounced for a 40th-minute goal which re-established a lead for Galway they would not relinquish.
Meanwhile, defending All-Ireland champions Clare overcame Wexford in the closing quarter of their quarter-final to win by 2-16 to 0-13.
The beaten Munster finalists started well with the opening three scores, and led by a point, 0-5 to 0-4, after 27 minutes, before a goal by Paul Rodgers after neat work by Tadhg Lohan gave Clare a four-point lead.
Wexford fought back and after trailing 1-6 to 0-6 at the break got back to a point at 1-8 to 0-10 in the second half with the help of Seán O’Brien’s frees.
But Clare then surged with eight unanswered points that put them out of range, and, despite a gallant effort by Wexford, Liam Murphy’s goal sealed the deal when he gathered a long clearance and scored from an angle in added time.
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