Offaly’s reign as Leinster and All-Ireland U20 hurling champions is over after they were overpowered by Dublin in the second half of yesterday’s provincial quarter-final in Newbridge.

Dublin, who lost both of their Tier 1 group matches before getting their first win against Antrim in the preliminary quarter-final, trailed by 1-3 to 0-9 at the break after Callum Graham netted in the 28th minute. But they turned it around after the restart when Graham raised his second green flag and Ollie Gaffney also fired two goals to avenge last year’s Leinster final defeat to the Faithful and set up a semi-final date with Kilkenny.

Adam Screeney hit 0-8 for Leo O’Connor’s charges but, crucially, was held scoreless from play as the All-Ireland minor finalists from three years ago made an early exit on a 0-17 to 4-12 scoreline.

Laois will meet Galway - who beat them by 23 points a month ago - in the other semi-final after they recorded a surprise 1-24 to 1-18 victory over Wexford in Chadwicks Wexford Park.

Ben Deegan helped himself to 0-10 as the O’Moore County U20s joined their minor counterparts in the last four of Leinster after their 31-point drubbing of Offaly on Saturday.

The winners led by double-scores, 0-14 to 0-7, before three Simon Roche points and a Conor Fanning goal for Wexford reduced the deficit to the minimum at half-time, 1-11 to 0-15.

But despite playing against the wind in the second half, Laois never looked back after Justin Duggan netted in the 35th minute as they repeated their victory over the Model County at minor level three years ago.

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