Ireland will start their Olympics campaign against South Africa.

Both Catholic Institute and Cork Harlequins will be without key figures for their big EY Hockey League showdown at Rosbrien tomorrow (12pm).

Michael Houghton says he has hit upon a framework that will play a key role in building a long-lasting dividend from Irish hockey’s recent successes.

The legend around Irish hockey hero Róisín Upton's winning penalty has grown all the more impressive.

Ireland women's hockey team created history on Sunday night as they qualified for the Olympics for the first time, after their dramatic penalty shoot-out win over Canada.

Ireland’s shoot-out queens are Tokyo-bound as Ayeisha McFerran added another glorious entry into her own sporting folklore with three incredible shoot-out saves.

Naomi Carroll will make her long-awaited return to Catholic Institute colours as she hopes to play a leading role in the Rosbrien side’s maiden year in the EY Hockey League.

Ayeisha McFerran has been passed fit to play some part in the women’s EuroHockey Championships which get underway next weekend in Antwerp.

He was not named in the panel released by Hockey Ireland with Jamie Carr and Mark Ingram included in the goalkeeping spots.

While an Olympic play-off place was achieved, Ireland’s FIH Series finals campaign ended on a deflated note as Korea struck three times in the closing quarter to silence a soldout crowd at Banbridge.

The Green Army marched into the semi-final of the FIH Series finals with the minimum of fuss as their 11-0 win over Singapore at Banbridge puts them one win away from a guaranteed direct Olympic qualifier tie.

The 126-time international has been part of each major ranking tournament with the Green Army since 2015, culminating in last summer’s World Cup silver medal.

Cork Harlequins, Catholic Institute and Cork C of I all grabbed the results they wanted to make it a perfect weekend for Munster hockey on the national stage.

Irish coach Graham Shaw rang the changes as they drew their first game since the World Cup - a scoreless tie against Chile.

Catholic Institute face the biggest test to their impressive early-season credentials with tomorrow’s trip to Monkstown.

Caoimhe Perdue’s strike gave Cork Harlequins a big lift as they defeated Muckross at Farmers’ Cross to get them back in contention for a top-four EY Hockey League play-off place.

Cork won the battle of the Harlequins in the women’s EY Hockey League as Darren Collins’ Farmers Cross outfit beat their Belfast counterparts 3-0 in Deramore Park to give a massive confidence boost to the new-look side.

Ahead of their historic World Cup finals weekend, Stephen Findlater looked at some things you may not know about our hockey heroes.

Megan Frazer has been included in Graham Shaw’s squad of 18 players for next month’s World Cup in London despite concerns over her fitness.

UCC missed out on possible promotion to the women’s EY Hockey League in frustrating fashion at the Mardyke as they ended the round-robin in third place.

While the EY Hockey Leagues could both be decided this weekend, the Munster focus will be on who can potentially join the elite division with UCC’s men and Catholic Institute’s women starting out their play-off journeys.

While there are plenty of miles still to travel, UCC’s away day in Limerick looks a potential decider for the students in women’s Munster Division One when they meet Catholic Institute at 1pm at Rosbrien on Saturday.

Cork Harlequins are the last remaining unbeaten side in the women’s EY Hockey League as they swept to a 3-0 win over Pembroke Wanderers in Dublin. The result keeps them within a point of leaders UCD.

The Irish U21 women’s side had their status in the top tier of European competition assured thanks to an EHF executive board decision this week which keeps alive their hopes of playing in the 2020 Junior World Cup.

Cork Harlequins ended UCD’s incredible 20-game unbeaten run in Belfield as Roisin Upton and Naomi Carroll struck for an excellent 2-1 win to open up the delayed women’s EY Hockey League.

With the détente between the Irish Hockey Umpires Association and Hockey Ireland in place, the EY Hockey League will tip off this weekend after two weeks of cancellations.

The Irish club season has been put on hold with the blanket cancellation of the first series of EY Hockey League matches — the sport’s marquee competition — due to a dispute over umpire remuneration.

Roisin Upton is hoping to make up for lost time with the Irish women’s team as they look to land a 2018 World Cup spot over the course of the next two weeks.

Cork Harlequins, despite playing two games in just over 24 hours, advanced to the Irish Senior Cup final for the first time in 15 years.

Ireland’s women are on course to progress to the next phase of their 2018 World Cup qualification campaign as they make light work of their opponents at World League 2 in Malaysia.

Munster’s boys teams will hope to find the cohesion necessary to challenge at this weekend’s U16 and U18 interpros in Belfast.

The second season of the EY Hockey League gets underway this weekend and 11 Olympians will feature, fresh from their Rio 2016 campaign.

HOCKEY: Ireland’s U21 sides are both safely through to the promotion pool of the EuroHockey Junior Championships II, but not without a couple of scares.

Róisín Upton gave Catholic Institute the perfect goodbye present as she nicked the winner in a hard-fought 2-1 win over Cork C of I.

Munster’s underage girls teams will be hoping to show the benefits of an early start to their preparations as their interprovincial tournaments get underway at Three Rock Rovers tomorrow.

Bandon are facing up to a potentially tough transitional period as the Munster senior hockey leagues get underway for the 2012/13 season this weekend.

Irish hockey has waved goodbye to some of its brightest female prospects in recent weeks, as the trickle of talent heading to America turns into a flood.

Margins have been fine in this year’s Munster Senior Schoolgirls Cup, and it took sudden-death penalty strokes to crown Bandon Grammar as the 2012 champions in yesterday’s dramatic decider in Rosbrien.

“Insta by the grace of God” is their club slogan, but Catholic Institute certainly haven’t needed any divine inspiration this season.

CORK’S finest are running out of time to catch Catholic Institute, after the Limerick side showed off their clinical short corner conversion ability with a 5-1 win over UCC at The Mardyke on Saturday.

BANDON will look to be the fly in Cork Harlequins’ ointment in a clash that is likely to end the losers’ faint title hopes at Harlequin Park tomorrow (12pm).

JEAN MCDONNELL has been handed the chance to prove her Irish international credentials after she was named in an 18-strong squad for next week’s FIH Champions Challenge I in Dublin.