The 2016 Nicky Rackard Cup was the 12th staging of the

Nicky Rackard Cup The Nicky Rackard Cup (; often referred to as the Rackard Cup) is an annual hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. The cup forms the fourth-tier of Hurling for senior county teams (the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Champi ...

hurling championship since its establishment by the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

in 2005. The competition began on Saturday 23 April 2016 and ended on Saturday 4 June 2016.

Roscommon Roscommon (; ; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60 road (Ireland), N60, N61 road (Ireland), N61 and N63 road (Irelan ...

were the 2015 champions and were promoted to the

Christy Ring Cup The Christy Ring Cup () is an annual hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. The cup forms the third-tier of Hurling for senior county teams (the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship is the first-tier trophy). It is ...

. On 4 June 2016, Mayo won the Nicky Rackard Cup following a 2-16 to 1-15 defeat of

Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...

. It was their first Nicky Rackard Cup title. Tyrone's

Damian Casey Damian Casey (1993 – 17 June 2022) was an Irish hurler who played for the Eoghan Ruadh, Dungannon, club and at senior level for the Tyrone county team. Regarded as his county's greatest ever hurler who—at the time of his death—was "at ...

was the championship's top scorer with 2-40.

Format

The 2016

is played in a

double-elimination A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimin ...

format. For clarity, the draw details are detailed in each round below.

Teams

General Information

Round 1

All eight teams play in Round 1.

Round 2A

Contested by the four winners of Round 1.

Round 2B

Contested by the four losers of Round 1.

Quarter-finals

The two losers of round 2A (who won a match and lost a match) play the two winners of round 2B (who lost a match and won a match). These two matches are referred to as quarter-finals.

Semi-finals

The winners of round 2A play the winners of the two quarter-finals.

Final

Christy Ring/Nicky Rackard Relegation/Promotion

The bottom team in this year's

(tier 2) plays the winner of this year's

(tier 3).

Nicky Rackard/Lory Meagher play-offs

Bottom play-off

Contested by the two losers from round 2B. Both these teams lost their first two matches.

Relegation/Promotion play-off

The bottom team in this year's

(tier 3) plays the winner of this year's

Lory Meagher Cup The Lory Meagher Cup (; often referred to as the Meagher Cup) is an annual hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. The cup forms the fifth-tier of hurling for senior county teams (the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Champio ...

(tier 4).

Scoring statistics

;Overall ;Top scorer in a single game

References

{{Nicky Rackard Cup, width=75%

Nicky Rackard Cup