Anthoni plots downfall of homeland

He’s Ireland’s ‘inside man’ of sorts as they prepare for one of the biggest weekends of their hockey careers, but Arul Anthoni insists the emotional aspect of facing his native Malaysia won’t be an issue for him.

This sold-out final pool clash (today, 3pm) always looked to be the crunch one for the Irish as they seek a place in tomorrow’s final of the Electric Ireland FIH Road to London — likely against Korea — with the winner taking the sole Olympic qualification berth on offer. A draw will get Ireland to the decider.

Anthoni is Ireland’s assistant coach, a role he previously held with his home nation Malaysia, for whom he earned 80 caps as a player. He admits his personal ties to the Malaysian setup made life hard for him when the sides met in the 2009 Champions Challenge semi-final, with a 2-1 victory for the Irish proving a landmark one for the side as they began to believe they could topple sides ranked higher. But Anthoni isn’t expecting any such issues this time around.

“It was tougher for me in 2009 because it was fresh but now I’m over it. I’ve been here for five years, working with the lads and Paul [Revington] for three.

“There are only four or five left who I coached previously. The emotional part is not much.”

Ireland have performed largely as expected thus far this week with three straightforward wins over weaker opposition sandwiched by a tense 1-1 draw with favourites Korea.

It’s hard to know what to expect from Malaysia, who have had a few scares along the way amid reports of dissatisfaction within the camp about the weather, facilities and the UCD pitch, with coach Tai Beng Hai claiming it was too fast and hard.

But they have one of the tournament’s superstars in Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin and a powerful short corner unit which is due a good outing.

They are cheered on in Dublin by a long list of dignitaries including Sultan Azlan Shah, their minister for sport.

Anthoni explained the importance of hockey in the Malaysian sporting psyche: “In Malaysia, hockey is one of the biggest sports after football with a lot of support from the sports council and the government which allows players to go full-time, which we don’t get here [in Ireland]. The whole nation is behind them.”

With Conor Harte on the road to recovery after suffering a nasty head injury on Tuesday, Ireland will likely use the same 16 that beat Chile 3-0 on Thursday night.