Mount Leinster Rangers defeated rivals St Mullin’s by 1-19 to 0-16 this afternoon to claim their four Carlow senior hurling championship title in six years.

The showdown at Netwatch Cullen Park marked the third consecutive county senior hurling final meeting between the two clubs, with MLR avenging their six-point defeat to St Mullin’s on the same stage 12 months ago by recording the same margin of victory here.

Paul O’Brien’s men built up a 0-4 to 0-1 lead before Chris Nolan hammered in the game’s only goal for them in the seventh minute, and points from Nolan and Donagh Murphy would serve to stretch their team’s advantage to eight points by the 10th minute.

The points of Marty Kavanagh, Jack Kavanagh and Paddy Boland looked to get the defending champions motoring and they would trim their deficit down to four points (1-10 to 0-9) by the interval.

Marty Kavanagh’s point early in the resumption left a goal between the sides and another score from the Carlow sharpshooter would be backed up by James Doyle’s point to put the minimum in it with 42 minutes played.

Nolan and Paul Doyle exchanged points to keep it a one-point game ahead of Nolan landing back-to-back scores and Kavanagh then replying at the other end for Tommy Buggy’s charges.

John Nolan and Chris Nolan (2) raised white flags that put daylight between the teams again and Ted Joyce would nail MLR’s 18th point of the day before their top-scorer Chris Nolan rounded off the six-point victory late on, sealing a 12th Willie O'Connor Cup success for the Kilkenny border men.

Mount Leinster Rangers are Carlow SHC champions!🏆 pic.twitter.com/ZBy23F7ThU

— Michael Verney (@mlverney) August 24, 2025

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