Harlequins and Munster face difficult ties in second legs

THE second legs of the All-Ireland Womens’ Club Hockey Championships take place over the weekend and Munster sides Harlequins and Bandon face difficult ties.

Harlequins are 3-0 down from the first leg to Hermes and even with home advantage it’s going to take a top notch performance to go through.

Former Irish captain, Rachael Kohler is well aware of how difficult it will be.

“We were disappointed with our own game last weekend and will be looking to improve on that tomorrow,” she said. “We made a couple of errors in the first leg that led to goals for them and we can’t afford to make the same mistakes tomorrow.

“No doubt they were the better team but I don’t think they were three goals better than us. Their basics were more polished than ours and that is something we have been working on in training this week. To have any chance of going through we have to be at our best right from the start.

“We will have to be tight at the back and make sure they don’t score and also get our penalty corners working. We had at least six last weekend and failed to score from any of them. It’s a tough task, but not impossible and we will be all out to give it our best shot tomorrow.”

Bandon play Ulster side Pegasus twice over the weekend, with both games at Belfield in Dublin. This was agreed by both clubs to make travel arrangements easier for them.

Tomorrow they play on the sand pitch and on Sunday on the water-based one. A Bandon win would be a major surprise and with the loss of Carol Welch, through injury, it has been made all the tougher.

But they have nothing to lose and will be looking to do themselves proud in this difficult tie.

The other ties see Loreto take a 3-2 lead into their home leg with Coleraine and Old Alex take a 3-1 lead as they travel to play Randalstown.