U16A camogie champs, Galway, beat Cork in the opening round of title defence

Defending champions Galway overcame Cork in the opening round of the Eir All-Ireland U16A camogie championship at Castle Road 1-5 to 2-9 where weather conditions played their part in a game of two contrasting halves. 

Torrential rain in the opening half saw players having to contend with difficult underfoot before bright sunshine emerged for the second half.

Galway settled quickest and opened with Grace Roche striking two early points inside the opening four minutes. 

Galway had a chance to extend their lead further when Ciara Mullins was fouled en-route to goal, but goalkeeper Kayleigh Murphy produced an excellent save to deny them extending their lead. 

Cork opened their account through Isabelle O’Callaghan ten minutes in, but Galway responded with Orna Dunne striking for a Galway goal to put her side four points clear. 

Cara Giblin and Grace Roche followed with pointed frees to stretch Galway’s advantage before Lauren McAuliffe responded with a Cork point. 

As they kept the pressure on the Cork defence, Cara Giblin and Grace Roche converted frees as Galway remained in control. 

Isobel O’Callaghan had the final say of the half with a converted free to leave Galway leading 1-5 to 0-3 at the interval.

Cork made a great start to the second half when Ailbhe Byerley finished to Galway net inside three minutes of the restart, but the Galway response was swift with Ciara Mullins grabbing their second goal.

Kayla Burke added a point to extend the lead before Cork ended an 18 minute wait for a score when Eabha Lynch pointed from play. 

Cara Giblin converted two frees before Isobel O’Callaghan converted a Cork free, but Galway remained in control to record the victory.

Meanwhile, having lost out to Tipperary in the opening round of the Electric Ireland Minor camogie championship, Cork will be anxious to get a win when they take on Limerick in Castle Road on Sunday at 2pm. 

The sides met two weeks ago in the Munster Minor final where Cork retained their title with a point to spare after a hard fought battle that went down to the wire, with Lexi Manley, Millie Lombard, Ava Ashman and Clara Murphy all impressing.

Leading by a point at the break two second-half goals proved vital for Cork as they held out under tremendous Limerick pressure. 

On the day the Limerick defence were superb, holding Cork to just two second-half scores, two goals, one coming from a long range free, this is something Cork will need to work on as it must have been a disappointment to only register one score from play for the entire second half. 

In their championship clash with Tipperary, Cork went eight points in arrears ten minutes into the second half but they worked hard and pegged it back as they battled to get something but failed narrowly as Tipperary hung on.

Limerick were 2024 U16A All-Ireland champions and their minor side contains several of that side Anna Rose Benson, Katelyn Ryan Aoibhinn O’Connor and Hazel Horgan have played big roles for them and they will be determined to reverse the result of their provincial clash with Cork.

With Galway, Kilkenny and Tipperary already having recorded wins, it's vital that Cork get a result with just four team to go through to the semi- final.

This weekend Dublin are at home to Galway, whilst Tipperary host Kilkenny and every result is vital.