Jermyn hits a brace as Ireland batter France

IRELAND all but assured themselves of a UCD Nations Cup final place as they hammered France 6-1 in Belfield last night, rounding off a miserable few days for the French.

Ireland prevailed 7-1 last Saturday and Paul Revington’s team threatened to do so again, coming up just one goal short.

It took just 90 seconds to get off the mark, Chris Cargo picking out Mitch Darling whose first touch wrong-footed Matthias Dierckens and dribbled over the line.

France stepped up their game, dominating the middle stages of the half but David Harte was reasonably comfortable in clearing three limp efforts – the sum of the French attacking intent.

Their will appeared to be broken when a Francois Scheefer howler opened the door for Ireland to punish some uncertain finishing.

He failed to control, allowing Cargo to nip in, and the French skipper compounded his error by blocking the Irish striker’s shot, resulting in a penalty stroke.

Cork man John Jermyn netted from the spot for 2-0, his 59th international goal, and number 60 came a minute later from Ireland’s first short corner.

And the goals continued to flow into the second half. Tim Cockram got a bizarre fourth, nut-megging Mathieu Dierckens. Darling’s second was a classy finish before Mikey Watt touched in from a couple of inches.

Jean-Baptiste Pauchet got the consolation goal four minutes from time.

IRELAND: D Harte, G McCabe, R Gormley, M Watt, C Cargo, J Brennan, J Jermyn, M Darling, T Cockram, C Harte, S Loughrey.

Subs: T Lewis, B McCandless, P Maguire, S O’Donoghue

FRANCE: M Dierckens, T Genestet, A Becuwe, F Magner, B Dierckens, Lucas Sevestre, Y Schambert, F Scheefer, J-B Pauchet, M Genestet, V Migneau

Subs: M Catonnet, Lois Sevestre, O Sanchez, S Wentworth, N Gagnard

UCD 4 Nations Cup results

China 2 (Z Sun, XLiu) Pakistan 3 (S Abbas, M Zubair, Haseem)

Ireland 6 (J Jermyn 2, M Darling 2, T Cockram, M Watt) France 1 (J-B Pauchet)

Final standings: 1. Ireland 6pts (+7) 2. Pakistan 3pts (-1) 3. France 3pts (-3) 4. China 0pts (-3)