Global Round-Up | The GAA preseason continues to gather pace, the NFL reaches the play-offs & More

A look at the results from all the sport last weekend including the GAA, Soccer, Golf, Rugby, NFL and NBA.

There was a brilliant weekend of sport observed over the last couple of days with preseason competitions in inter county hurling and football heating up. The Premier league has nearly completed its comeback after numerous bouts of postponements due to Covid. In the AFCON, the group stages continued.

Meanwhile, in the NFL, the Wildcard and play-off spots were confirmed as the NBA season heats up.

Check out a round up of the weekend in sport below.

Hurling

Limerick and Clare will meet in the Munster Hurling Cup final as both teams came through the semi-finals, Clare having the tougher of the two, beating Waterford by five in a close encounter. Limerick were full value for a 4-29 to 0-11 win, putting the Kingdom to the sword.

Action in the Walsh Cup saw Dublin, Kilkenny and Offaly all have convincing wins. They beat Galway, Laois and Antrim respectively. Carlow, Westmeath and Wicklow both progressed in their levels of the Kehoe and Shield Cup.

Donegal and Down both had very simple wins in Round 3 of the Conor McGurk Cup. Donegal overcame UU Jordanstown while Down beat Louth.

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Gaelic Football:

In the O Byrne Cup, Emmet Ó Conghaile became part of an interesting statistic when he came on as a substitute against Longford. Ó Conghaile was the 39th player Dessie Farrell has given the nod to in just three games. Dublin came out victorious in the end. Meath beat Wexford, Offaly overcame Louth and Laois breezed by Wicklow.

In the Dr McKenna Cup Donegal, Armagh and Derry all had away victories against Antrim, Tyrone and Fermanagh.

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Rugby:

Munster beat Castres away from home with Gavin Coombes the hero of the day scoring the try to seal the victory in the 78th minute, the provinces third successive in the Champions Cup.

Leinster hammered Montpellier 89-7 at the RDS, notching 13 tries in the process. Connacht threw away an eighteen point lead against Leicester, falling to a 29-28 defeat in the final moments. Ulster narrowly beat the Northampton Saints 24-20.

Wasps, Bordeaux and Exeter all grabbed the headlines with their wins also with their wins over reigning champions Toulouse, Scarlets and the Glasgow Warriors.

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Soccer:

In the Premier League, Man City beat an out of form Chelsea 1-0. United coughed up a two goal lead to settle for a draw with Aston Villa. Everton suffered another bad loss with Rafael Benitez sacked as a result.

Jack Harrison bagged a hat-trick for Leeds against the Hammers in their 3-2 victory. Liverpool had a 3-0 victory over Brentford without their main attackers Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane who are taking part in AFCON.

Meanwhile, the Africa Cup of Nations group stages continued. Equatorial Guinea beat Algeria ending their 35 game unbeaten run in all competitions and friendlies. Other notable wins came from Nigeria, Egypt and Tunisia over Sudan, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania respectively as the former trio remained top of of their groups.

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Golf:

Munster golfer Seamus Power continued his meteoric rise in the world of golf with his third place finish in the Sony Open in Hawaii. The Waterford native has moved up to 50th in the world rankings as a result having been outside the top 400 last May.

Bang Bang 🚨🚨closing birdie at the par 5 18th for Seamus Power and a -5 65 in the final round of the Sony Open. It will be a tied 3rd finish this week for Seamus. I think it may be enough for Seamus to get into the top 50 in the OWGR 🙏🙏That’s all from me @LowryTracker pic.twitter.com/7a1Cl4RArO

— Seamus Power Tracker (@TrackerPower) January 17, 2022

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American Football:

The play-off picture in the NFL became clear over the weekend. The Bills and the Patriots met at the weekend in a clash of the titans with the Bills winning dominantly. The Bengals, Buccs, 49ers and the Chiefs all won aswell in an unsurprising weekend of football. The 49ers will face the Packers in the divisional round. Tom Brady and the Buccs will host the Rams. The Chiefs take on the Bills. The Bengals look to impress in their first play-offs in 31 years against the Titans.

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Basketball:

The Nuggets, the Suns and the Warriors had the most noticeable wins in the NBA this weekend as they all won by considerable margins.

That's game pic.twitter.com/ly2h4tA9vj

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) January 17, 2022

The Orlando Magic beat the Hornets aswell as they look to move from the bottom of the table in the Eastern Conference, as did the Pistons who lie in 14th.

The Bulls and the Miami Heat continue to lead the way in the Eastern Conference ahead of the Brooklyn Nets (27-16), Cleveland Cavaliers (27-18) and the defending champions, the Milwaukee Bucks (27-19).

Meanwhile the Suns and the Warriors are still fending off any attempts to be knocked from their podium in the West. The most dangerous looking teams to make it towards the top two currently are the Grizzlies (31-15) and Utah Jazz (29-15)