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Leinster hurling is at a cross roads. For the second time this year Kilkenny waltzed past Wexford with embarrassing ease on Sunday to book their place in yet another All-Ireland final.

While Wexford’s quarter-final win over Tipperary was greeted with joy on Slaneyside, many were wondering if the Premier County would have given the All-Ireland Champions a better game.

This semi-final was an even more one-sided encounter than the Leinster final between the two though Wexford lost by a mere 10 points this time around.

Positives were strewn throughout the game for Kilkenny.

Henry Shefflin returned to the top of his form in the process hitting 0-14.

Kilkenny have reached an All-

Ireland final without having to play any of the hard games that either of their possible opponents, Waterford and Limerick, will have had to battle through to reach the final.

Manager Brian Cody drew his own plusses from the game.

He said: “We were very focused, took nothing for granted and worked hard, that is all I can ask of my players and they are improving with every game so there is no telling where they can go from here.”

The difference between the teams on the day was that Kilkenny did the simple things very well, while Wexford lacked the composure to even do that.

Kilkenny patiently took their points throughout the game.

Wexford on the other hand seemed to lack the confidence to try to match the Cats score-for-score, instead they pushed for goals which never came and as a result they trailed throughout the match.

When the Slaneysiders did find the net with Rory Jacob firing home from close range it proved to be only the merest of consolations.

Wexford manager John Meyler admitted afterwards that the bulk of his team’s problems are in the forward line. He said: “We need more forwards, bigger forwards. To be honest I don’t think Kilkenny were at full speed today, they were just ticking over.

“Wexford will just have to learn from this. We were more competitive this year than we have been for a while so if we can progress more next year then at least we will be doing something right.”