Harlequins can do C of I a favour in European Championships
Bottom of the table ’Quins, who have lost their three Euro fixtures to date, will play the host team, Club Leopold in the final game of the tournament.
Should Harlequins win, Ireland’s representatives next year (Cork C of I) will contest the “A” division in next whilst a loss would mean demotion to the “B” division.
The Cork side have struggled to match the awesome international talent of their German, English and Polish opponents, losing to German outfit Gladbacher 3-1, being walloped 10-0 by Reading on Saturday and 4-0 to Grunwald yesterday.
But there is little disgrace in those results, as each opponent was laden with international talent and experience.
“I suppose it has been a real eye opener to be honest,” Harlequins coach Donal Kingston said. “We have not played at this level before and it showed.”
However, he said that he was extremely pleased with their opening form adding that they have since struggled with tiredness, injury and humid temperatures.
“We played out of our skin on the first day and were 1-1 at half time before we lost 3-1. But against Reading on Saturday, we were probably suffering a bit from tiredness after the opening game.
“We went out and were playing too loose. They scored three goals in the first 15 minutes and they grew in confidence while we lost ours.
“We re-grouped yesterday and played much tighter and were much more solidly. The four goals did not reflect the game. We played very well as far as I was concerned.”
The result was all the more remarkable as the Harlequins squad were without John Hobbs (broken thumb) Philip McLaughlin (broken finger), who were both injured in the defeat to Reading while Richard Gash was ruled out after suffering a bout of food poisoning.
Club Leopold defeated the French side Montrouge yesterday to take third spot in the table. But Kingston believes that they are beatable.
“We saw that game today and we think that we should be able to compete with Leopold and we hope to give them a strong game.
Reading defeated Gladbacher from Germany to top group “A” to reach the final by a scoreline of 3 - 1 and their opponents from Group “B” will be the Spanish side Club Polo from Barcelona who defeated Bloemendaal from Holland by the same margin.
Meanwhile, Belfast side Pegasus crashed to one of their heaviest defeats in Europe yesterday when losing 8-1 to Dutch side Hertogenbosch in their opening match in their Division A game
Arlene Boyles notched Pegasus only goal from a penalty corner five minutes after the break which left it 3-1 at that stage.
HARLEQUINS: W Bateman, P Chambers, M Pedersen, N Bryan, P O'Driscoll, J Aherne, D Eakins, D Lombard, P Lombard, J Black, B Hayes Curtin, D Egner, E Gash, S Nicholson, C Brady.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
