SATURDAY 25 April
Leinster SHC
Kilkenny v Wexford, UPMC Nowlan Park, 6.30pm
Joe McDonagh Cup
Down v Laois, Páirc Esler, 1.30pm
Laois v Antrim, Laois Hire O'Moore Park, 4pm
Westmeath v Carlow, TEG Cusack Park, 4pm
Christy Ring Cup
Derry v Donegal, Find Insurance Celtic Park, 1pm
Roscommon v Kerry, Ballyforan, 1pm
Nicky Rackard Cup
Louth v Tyrone, Dowdallshill, 3pm
SUNDAY 26 April
Munster SHC
Cork v Limerick, SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, 2pm
Waterford v Tipperary, Azzurri Walsh Park, 4pm
Leinster SHC
Dublin v Kildare, Parnell Park, 3pm
Galway v Offaly, Pearse Stadium, 3.30pm
Christy Ring Cup
Wicklow v Meath, Aughrim, 2pm
Nicky Rackard Cup
Fermanagh v Mayo, Brewster Park, 2pm
Sligo v Armagh, Tubbercurry, 4pm
Lory Meagher Cup
Lancashire v Cavan, Páirc na hÉireann, 12pm
Leitrim v Longford, Páirc Sean MacDiarmada, 2pm
Warwickshire v Monaghan, Páirc na hÉireann, 2pm
ONLINE
Follow a live blog on all matches on the RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport.
TV
GAA+ have live coverage of Kilkenny v Wexford on Saturday (6.30pm throw-in) and the Waterford-Tipperary Munster SHC clash on Sunday afternoon (4pm).
Cork v Limerick is broadcast live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on Sunday from 1.30pm.
Highlights and reaction to all the weekend's action on The Saturday Game (9.30pm) and The Sunday Game (9.30pm) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
RADIO
Live commentaries and updates on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport as well as Spórt an tSathairn and Spórt an Lae on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta.
WEATHER
Saturday: A mix of cloud and sunny spells, the best of which will be in the north and east. Elsewhere there will be showers at times, some of which will be heavy or thundery, but they will become isolated by evening. Highest temperatures of 14-19C
Sunday: Largely dry with just some showers. Sunny spells early in the day will improve with more widespread sunshine expected later. Highest temperatures of 14-18C in light variable breezes. For more, visit met.ie.
Little room for error in Walsh Park
It's not without precedent for teams to emerge from the Munster championship having lost two of their round robin matches.
Cork have done so three times - in 2019, 2022 and 2024. Indeed, in the latter two campaigns, they lost their opening two matches and still progressed.
Limerick even won Munster in 2019 after losing two round robin games. (Are we still calling it the 'round robin' by the way? It feels a bit too twee and genteel a phrase for the Munster hurling.)
But with both Waterford and Tipperary having an away game against Limerick to come, there's a sense that the loser this weekend is surely doomed to a provincial exit.
Sadly, this will be nothing new for Waterford, who have failed to emerge from the Munster championship in its current format.
They've won at least one Munster SHC game in the last four campaigns, three of them their opening game, but still have yet to progress to the All-Ireland series.
This year, they started with a loss, albeit an unlucky one.
The six-point margin in Ennis wasn't reflective of the game or of the tension at the end. Patrick Curran had a glorious chance to level the game two minutes into injury-time but Éibhear Quilligan pulled off a fine save, diving to his right.
As Waterford tried to work an equalising goal, committing bodies forward, Clare forced a turnover and countered swiftly, Shane Meehan rounding off the game by burying it to the roof of the net. The last play may have implications down the line if we get into a score difference situation.
There were plus points for Waterford. Stephen Bennett was superb and picked up Man of the Match despite being on the losing side. And Austin Gleeson looked sharp on his introduction, scoring 0-02 from play.
Still, they conceded a record tally of 2-33 and there was, even as they fought gamely to get back, a sense that Clare could pick off points at will at the other end.
If Waterford were hard done by with their margin of defeat, then Tipperary were flattered.
They frequently took advantage of Cork's short-passing imprecision in defence in a tit-for-tat first half. But they were wiped out in the middle passage of the second half, and they failed to score from play after half-time until the 65th minute.
Substitute Alan Tynan's goal as the game entered injury-time put a better look on the scoreboard and they had a subequent goal chance to get even closer but a draw would have been larceny.
Liam Cahill wasn't shy of making substitutions to change things - he made a spate of them early in the second half - but couldn't stem the tide.
It remains to be seen whether the familiar post-All-Ireland hangover will dog them but they have their work cut out to avoid the fate of Clare last year.
They have yet to win a Munster SHC league game in Walsh Park in two attempts, though they did win well in the recent league game there to condemn Waterford to relegation.
Cork v Limerick - the third edition of 2026
It was this fixture in Páirc Uí Chaoimh two years ago that could be seen to have ignited the current era of Cork hurling.
It was certainly one of the great games, surely the best in the history of the current format. As noted above, Cork were heading out of the championship with two losses from two.
Two points down in injury-time, Patrick Collins found Shane Kingston with a quick puckout and we know the rest.
"Film it all," John Kiely reportedly told his own county's media team of the jubilant celebrations of the Cork fans out on the pitch.
It was perhaps with an eye on the Cork hype-machine that Kiely issued an appeal to supporters on Limerick's Live95 this week, urging them to "cheer every single action of the players on the pitch... this team needs the supporters right behind them."
It calls to mind the David Clifford appeal for Kerry supporters to travel ahead of last year's quarter-final. The previous season, Jack O'Connor had stressed the impact of the enormous Armagh crowd in their semi-final loss. A reminder that these things, beyond 'the white lines', do have an impact.
Surprisingly, the game still isn't sold out at the time of writing, though perhaps that will change.
The scenario isn't as acute for Cork as it was in 2024, who do have the slight cushion of their win away to Tipperary last weekend, though there's never much scope to relax in Munster.
Ben O'Connor was quick to embrace his new full-back Ciaran Joyce straight after the final whistle. The Cork defence stood up particularly well, with the Downey brothers dominant on the opposing puckout and Joyce performing strongly at full-back.
The half-forward line scored 0-12 from play, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Shane Barrett and debutant Barry Walsh each getting 0-04 apiece - Fitzgibbon's points all coming in the first 10 minutes.
Kiely's team make their opening bow after securing the fourth league title of his reign.
Limerick's last Munster SHC campaign in the wake of a league win - in 2023 - was a relatively uneven one by their standards. They needed a narrow win over Cork in the final weekend to avoid elimination at the provincial stage.
Much has been said of the refreshed nature of their starting team, with Aidan O'Connor and Shane O'Brien prominent in the forward line, while Adam English and Cathal O'Neill are increasingly influential.
In the league final, it was the medal-laden Aaron Gillane who did the most damage. And now he's ruled out for the weekend's game after picking up an injury at training.
LEINSTER - Kilkenny-Wexford takes centre-stage
For the first time under the present format, the Kilkenny-Wexford fixture will not conclude the series.
One too many dead rubbers, or semi-dead rubbers, in what is one of the traditional rivalries in Leinster hurling, had prompted a change this year.
Wexford's excellent head-to-head record in this fixture in the last decade is caveated by this factor.
Last year's game was a full-on dead rubber, with Wexford already eliminated and Kilkenny assured of a Leinster final spot. The latter picked an experimental team and Wexford won comfortably.
The stakes have risen considerably this year, especially in light of the Cats' poor form and their latest heavy defeat in Salthill.
For the first time, the prospect of Kilkenny missing out on the top-three in Leinster is being seriously entertained. Victory is an imperative with an awkward trip to Parnell Park still to come.
Wexford saw off Kildare by eight points in a free-ridden game in St Conleth's Park. It contrasted heavily with the champagne hurling on display in their 21-point win in the final round of the league. Kildare, however, have shown themselves to be far more competitive at home.
Expectations had been low from the get-go in Wexford this season, though Keith Rossiter's side finished the league better than they started it.
Offaly may be in buoyant mood heading to Salthill after their showing against Dublin. Though Adam Screeney was in foul humour, and was reported to have dodged the autograph hunters when leaving the pitch.
They were a whisker away from beating Dublin in the opening round last year and were given a big chance of beating a Galway side who were at a low ebb after a heavy loss in Nowlan Park.
In the end, that match was hard to distinguish from any other Offaly-Galway match since 2012. And Galway look transformed dramatically for the better now. Still, it's a free hit for Johnny Kelly's team who are in contention for a top three spot.
The Dubs' Leinster ambitions were almost badly wounded in Tullamore last Saturday. Donal Burke rescued them at the death and, in the end, not much harm was done. They host Kildare in Parnell Park, having won the same fixture with some ease early on in the league, conceding just two points from play.
Joe McDonagh - Davy under pressure
Barely a week goes by without a former Antrim hurler lamenting the current state of the county team. This week, Gary O'Kane told the Irish Independent that "the whole energy that Darren Gleeson had built up has seeped away... It's a shocking state of affairs to be honest".
Davy Fitzgerald has already hit back at Sambo McNaughton in the past - "he was in management, maybe he didn't have a great record in that" - but we'll have to see after the weekend whether he responds to O'Kane.
For the second time this year, Antrim were beaten by Down by an injury-time goal from Donal Hughes. They head to Portlaoise this Saturday badly needing a win.
Carlow and Laois may be heading in opposite directions in the league but it was the former who won comfortably in Netwatch Cullen Park, hitting four goals.
Pat Bennett's side are in Mullingar this week to face a Westmeath team who took their time in seeing off London in Ruislip. The Exiles face a buoyant Down side in Newry.
Watch Cork v Limerick in the Munster Hurling Championship on Sunday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch highlights on The Saturday Game and The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on all matches on the RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
