Hockey blow for Ireland

AN enforced revamping of the pool structures for the forthcoming European Women’s Nations Championships in Dublin will see Ireland having to play hockey superpowers Spain and Holland.

The changes came about when the European Hockey Federation announced that the pools would be restructured following an instruction from the international ruling body, the FIH, to use their world rankings as a basis for pool structure, rather than the system based on the final ranking from the 2003 championships and qualifying tournaments.

Under the new system, Ireland are now in Pool A with the world’s top-ranked team Holland, as well as Spain and France. Pool B is comprised of Olympic gold medallists Germany, England, Ukraine and Scotland.

The change in policy also affects the Women’s Hockey Trophy and the Men’s European Nations Championship, but not the Men’s Hockey Trophy, in which Ireland’s men’s team is competing in Rome in September.