NHL Roundup - Week 1

In a similar vein to the NFL, the National Hurling League plugs the gap between the Winter pre-season and when the All-Ireland series starts in the Summer. Hurling is probably the fastest played sport in the world requiring tremendous skill. If a game turns out to be good, it usually makes for fantastic viewing. They brought in a new, simpler league format this year and more on how the competition is structured can be found here.

Division 1

• Tipperary began the defence of their title with a good win away at Waterford in what sounded like a very impressive display from the champions.

• Limerick narrowly won at home to Clare. In terms of scoring, this was probably the match of the weekend and Clare showed great spirit coming back from a huge deficit at half-time, but it was not enough.

• Cork are not known as the 'Rebels' for nothing and usually cause a ruckus at this time of the year and it is the same case this time around. From what I understand, the senior players have all refused to play and so they have had to field a fringe/youth team or risk being thrown out of this competition and the All-Ireland itself later in the year. Anyway, this was a very good display from them even though Dublin eventually won the match. Dublin are seen as a side that are that hover between the top and second tier so they will take something from this victory, and scoring 4 goals away from home is great.

• The game between Galway and Kilkenny got called off due to the weather.

Division 2

• The only game to go ahead was Wexford getting an expected win at Kerry. Wexford are probably favourites to win this division.

• The other 3 matches were all called off.
  

Division 3A

• Derry beat Mayo in a tight, scrappy game. The result was probably expected seeing as Derry had home advantage.

• The other 2 fixtures did not happen.

Division 3B

• All 3 fixtures got postponed.
  

• Louth had the weekend off regardless of the weather.

Division 4

• South Down and Leitrim shared the spoils. Draws are fairly rare in hurling as there are usually more points scored and the game is more free-flowing than gaelic football.

Postponed Matches

• Here's a full list of all the games that got called off due to the poor weather conditions.
  

So overall it was a slightly muted start to the NHL, even though some of the bigger games delivered fascinating contests.