Rebuilt Ireland in better shape for Barcelona

RIET KUPER remembers only too vividly Ireland ladies’ first training camp in the build up to this week’s European Championships in Barcelona.

The Ireland coach brought her charges to her native Holland and watched in dismay as they were comprehensively dismantled by a side she admits is one of the best in the world.

"It was not good," she says in her clipped English. "We got beat bad. It was high scores against us and we got a mauling.