Ireland hoping to pick up some points

“THAT was the week that was,” and one the Irish women’s World Cup hockey squad will be trying to make amends for to some small measure of degree when they resume action today against Japan in the Women’s Hockey World Cup tournament in Perth.

On Saturday against Spain the signs were looking very good for Ireland that they would at last break their ‘duck’ of four Pool “B” defeats and collect their first points.

But like it was against the US at the start of the week, when losing 2-1 in a match they should have won, they faltered yet again against a Spanish side who, after an impressive first half , lost a lot of their attacking flare and composure against a rejuvenated Irish comeback in the second-half.

Spain certainly looked the sharper in the opening half and their many incursions into the Irish circle should have left them more than 1-0 in front at the break when Luci Lopez was on hand to tuck away a penalty corner after 14 minutes following a save from Tara Browne in the Irish goal.

The best Irish attempts of a score in this half bore promise on two occasions when Laura Lee misdirected a pass to Lynsey McVicker in a scoring position and McVicker was unlucky a second time when captain Rachel Kohler, the Cork Harlequins midfielder, just failed to connect properly with her intended pass.

But it was all to play for from an Irish perspective in the opening minute of the second half when sweeper Arlene Boyles levelled with a short-corner strike and their subsequent play left the Spaniards looking very much second best for the remainder of half.

Ten minutes later the character of the game took on a different complexion due to the bad handling by the two umpires Caroline de la Fuente (Argentina) and Sarah Garnett (New Zealand). They were criticised by both team coaches.

The two officials, who made some crucial errors in the second-half, capped it all by producing three yellow cards two of them to Ireland, Jenny Burke and Eimear Cregan.

Their actions played more into the hands of Spain as in the 61st minute, and Cregan still in the Sin Bin, the Irish cover was not fully prepared when Silvia Munoz had time to get on the end of a free hit to score the winner.

Irish coach Riet Kuper summed it up: “It was a very hard result for us to take and a harsh one at that. I’m very unhappy that we haven’t a point to our name so far.”

It has been confirmed that all 16 nations competing in this World Cup event will be taking part in next year’s Olympic qualifying tournaments; the only proviso being that as all the five continental champions are present here and China, already qualified, the only nation who could make a difference to the situation is Canada who failed to make it to this World Cup were to win the Pan American Cup which would require Ireland to finish no lower than 15th here.

Holland were found guilty of using unfair means in their 6-0 win over Ireland on Friday by allowing their players wear earpieces to communicate with their coach during play.

As this is not covered in the F I H rules they decided that it was not in the spirit of the game and will not be allowed in future. The F I H did not hand out any punishment to Holland as a result and turned down Holland’s appeal against their ruling.

Germany’s 3-1 win over New Zealand on Saturday made them a good bet to join the Argentine, big World Cup favourites here to book their sem-final places. Argentina lead Pool “A” on 15 pts while yesterday’s clash between Australia and Holland, which pulled in a 7000 crowd for a 11 am start saw the Dutch triumph 3-1 laving them top on 15 pts.

Ireland (v Spain): T Browne, A Boyles, L Caulfield, K Maybin, D Sixsmith, R Kohler, J Orbinson, L Lee,

C McMahon, J Burke, L McVicker. Subs- K Humphreys, E Cregan, C O’Brien, L O’Neill.