Ireland bury their French hoodoo in style at Lille

IRELAND’S senior men gave coach Paul Revington plenty more to chew on as they came away from Lille with the Champions Challenge II title in the bag following a 4-2 final defeat of France.

Defeated by Poland in the 2009 final in Dublin, Ireland more than made up for that loss here, all the more pleasingly so given Revington left some of his most experienced campaigners — including centurions John Jermyn, Timmy Cockram and Phelie Maguire — at home for this tournament.

It hasn’t been all plain sailing for Ireland this week but a raft of positives have emerged as they played some breathtaking stuff in picking up a second piece of silverware to add to the Celtic Cup won last month.

David Harte claimed the goalkeeper of the tournament award having won the MVP award at the UCD 4 Nations in June, while twin brother Conor announced himself as an international drag-flicker with five of the 28 goals Ireland notched across seven games.

The Kinsale man headed up a new-look penalty corner unit that clicked in style in the 9-2 trouncing of Russia in Saturday’s semi-final.

Furthermore, the relatively unheralded Peter Caruth was among the player of the tournament candidates, while fellow Ulster men David Ames and Chris Cargo have also grown into instrumental roles.

Ireland also finally buried their French bogey at world ranking tournaments. It was the French who virtually relegated the Irish to the European B division in Manchester four years ago, and also bumped Ireland down to fourth in the 2008 Olympic qualifiers in New Zealand.

Yesterday, skipper Ronan Gormley tucked away a penalty stroke after Cargo had been felled in the circle, before Harte took the heat at corner time to give Eugene Magee the space to drag home a second, before Mathieu Catonnet’s scrappy effort gave the French a lifeline at half-time.

Andy McConnell finished off a lovely move for 3-1 but Martin Genestet touched in a contentious goal to keep France in the game until Gareth Watkins nailed the Irish victory with the final touch to another stunning team goal.

It secured the side’s fifth trophy since Revington took over and the biggest to date after three Celtic Cups and a European B division. He said: “We’ve done okay, eh? There’s still more of the guys from two years ago in the squad but what they’re doing in the way they’re training, that shouldn’t be in their mind. The harder they work, the faster you play, the more you can look forward and don’t have to look back. I think we deserved it out there. If you score four goals, you should win.”

Ireland and France’s immediate future remains entwined, however; having already met six times this summer, they will meet again at the INSEP Five Nations in Paris before the big one on August 22, paired together in the European championships group stages.