Brian Dowling left disappointed after St Kieran's College All-Ireland final loss to Ardscoil Ris

The agony and despair was written all over St Kieran’s College manager Brian Dowling’s face as he fulfilled his media duties following defeat for the Kilkenny school in the All-Ireland senior colleges hurling final.

While acknowledging that they ran into a good Ardscoil Rís side, Dowling was left to rue not taking the most of their chances.

“We met a very good team on the day and a couple of big moments turned the game,” he said.

“We had a bit of momentum there in the second half and we missed a couple of opportunities and ultimately then we couldn’t reel in Ardscoil Rís to get level and obviously the goal near the end was a killer.

“I didn’t think there was much in it in the second half but we just couldn’t close the gap.”

Ardscoil Rís’s use of an extra defender to curtail the likes of Harry Shine certainly played a part in the Limerick side’s victory.

While Kieran’s were fully expecting a similar tactical move, it still caused them a few problems.

“We knew Ardscoil Rís were going to set up defensively as they have set up like that in the last few games and Cian Scully was very good at his sweeper role and he read the play very well.

“We spoke a lot about it during the week and when you are playing against seven defenders it blocks up a lot of traffic. As a result they restricted us well in the first half.

“Again though we kind of got to grips with it in the second half but we just couldn’t get the scores on the board in the end.

“Ardscoil Rís are a very good team and we are just bitterly disappointed with the result and we just have to move on and get on with it.”