Camogie: Galway and Kilkenny maintain 100% records

Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie champions Galway will do battle with Kilkenny next week to determine who will emerge from Group 2 as table toppers and earn the resultant automatic semi-final spot after both sides won today.

A quirk of the draw also has last year's intermediate winners Antrim going toe-to-toe with Limerick with the third qualifying slot from the group up for grabs.

And that means that the final group game, between Down and Offaly also has a huge amount riding on it, with the losers facing a relegation play-off against the bottom team in Group 1.

Right now, it is Offaly who prop up the table without any points. Susan Earner’s crew battled all the way to the final whistle against Kilkenny and were particularly competitive in the second half but by then, the result was already assured, the Noresiders leading by 12 points at the interval on the way to a 3-18 to 2-7 triumph at UPMC Nowlan Park.

The Cats racked up the scores with relative ease in the first half and after Mairéad Teehan equalised Denise Gaule’s opener, Julieanne Malone began a run of 12 successive scores for Brian Dowling’s side that included six more points for Gaule.

Miriam Walsh, Aoife Prendergast and Michaela Kennelly also clipped over nice scores and though Sarah Harding provided brief respite for Offaly with a goal, Kilkenny’s reply was ruthlessly swift, Katie Nolan rattling the Faithfuls’ net from the next attack to make it 1-13 to 1-1 at the break.

Nolan grabbed her second goal six minutes after the resumption and when Malone raised another green flag in the 29th minute, the margin was 18. Offaly fought valiantly and Teehan was their principal scoring contributor but they must now defeat Down next weekend to avoid a relegation