The 2021 National Hurling League was the 90th season of the National Hurling League for

county team A county is a geographic region within Gaelic games, controlled by a county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and originally based on the 32 counties of Ireland as they were in 1884. While the administrative geography of Ireland has ...

s. The English county teams (London, Warwickshire and Lancashire) did not compete due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

travel restrictions. In February 2021 it was announced that the league would be delayed due to the

impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Gaelic games As with other sports, the COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption to Gaelic games, primarily in Ireland but also elsewhere in the world. Competitions were cancelled, postponed or restructured, while some teams were withdrawn or were unable to pa ...

and that cancelling it would be a last resort. The league began on 8 May 2021.

Eir Sport Eir Sport (stylised as eir Sport; formerly Setanta Sports) was a group of Irish television sports channels operated by Eircom Sport Limited, a subsidiary of Eir. In December 2015, Eir purchased original Setanta Sports operations in the Republi ...

and RTÉ provided live TV coverage of the league on Saturday nights.

TG4 TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known ...

broadcast Sunday afternoon games. The highlights programmes were

RTÉ2 RTÉ2 is an Television in the Republic of Ireland, Irish free-to-air television channel operated by public service broadcaster RTÉ. It was launched in 1978 as the Republic of Ireland's second television channel. History In the 1970s, the Iri ...

's ''League Sunday'' on Sunday evenings, and TG4's ''GAA 2021'' on Monday evenings. and were the joint winners.

Format

League structure Thirty-two teams competed in the 2021 National Hurling League – * twelve teams organised in two six-team groups of approximately equal strength in Division 1 * six teams in Division 2A * five teams in Divisions 2B and 3A * four teams in Division 3B. All thirty-two county teams from Ireland took part.

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

and

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

did not take part; they retained their division placings (2B, 3A and 3B respectively) for the

2022 National Hurling League The 2022 National Hurling League, known for sponsorship reasons as the Allianz Hurling League, was the 91st season of the National Hurling League, an annual hurling competition held in Ireland for county teams. Three English county teams also fe ...

. Each team plays all the other teams in their division once, either home or away. Two points are awarded for a win, and one for a draw. Tie-breaker * If only two teams are level on league points, the team that won the head-to-head match is ranked ahead. If this game was a draw, score difference (total scored minus total conceded in all games) is used to rank the teams. * If three or more teams are level on league points, score difference is used to rank the teams. Final, promotions and relegations Division 1 *There is no final; there will either be joint winners, or if the teams that win Divisions 1A and 1B meet in the

2021 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship The 2021 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was the 134th staging of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, the Gaelic Athletic Association's premier inter-county hurling tournament, since its establishment in 1887. The championship ...

, this will double as the NHL final. * The bottom team in each group meet in a relegation play-off, with the losers being relegated to Division 2A Divisions 2A, 2B and 3A * The first-placed team is the division champion and is promoted * The bottom team is relegated Division 3B * The first-placed team is the Division 3B champion and is promoted to Division 3A

Division 1

Division 1 Format

The top twelve teams compete in Division 1 in two six-team groups of approximately equal strength. This group structure was introduced in 2020. Each team play all the other teams in their group once. Two points are awarded for a win and one for a draw. The top team in each group will be deemed "Co-champion", unless they are drawn together in the

, in which case the match will double up as the league final.

Division 1 Group A Table

Division 1 Group A Rounds 1 to 5

Division 1 Group A Round 1

Division 1 Group A Round 2

Division 1 Group A Round 3

Division 1 Group A Round 4

Division 1 Group A Round 5

Division 1 Group B Table

Division 1 Group B Rounds 1 to 5

Division 1 Group B Round 1

Division 1 Group B Round 2

Division 1 Group B Round 3

Division 1 Group B Round 4

Division 1 Group B Round 5

Division 1 Final

If the two teams that won Divisions 1A and 1B (Galway and Kilkenny respectively) had met in the

, this would have doubled as the league final. This did not happen so both teams were declared as joint winners.

Division 1 relegation play-off

The bottom teams in the two Division 1 groups met in a play-off with the losers (Westmeath) relegated to Division 2A.

Division 1 scoring statistics

;Top scorers overall ;Top scorers in a single game

Division 2A

Division 2A Table

Division 2A Rounds 1 to 5

Division 2A Round 1

Division 2A Round 2

Division 2A Round 3

Division 2A Round 4

Division 2A Round 5

Division 2A scoring statistics

;Top scorers overall ;Top scorers in a single game

Division 2B

Division 2B Table

Division 2B Rounds 1 to 5

Division 2B Round 1

Division 2B Round 2

Division 2B Round 3

Division 2B Round 4

Division 2B Round 5

Division 2B scoring statistics

;Top scorers overall ;Top scorers in a single game

Division 3A

Division 3A Table

Division 3A Rounds 1 to 5

Division 3A Round 1

Division 3A Round 2

Division 3A Round 3

Division 3A Round 4

Division 3A Round 5

Division 3B

Division 3B Table

Division 3B Rounds 1 to 3

Division 3B Round 1

Division 3B Round 2

Division 3B Round 3

References

External links

Full Fixtures and Results
{{GAA 2021

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

National Hurling League seasons