All too easy as both Irish sides sweep to gold medal wins

A lop-sided European championship campaign came to a suitably farcical end for Ireland’s U21 sides, as they both took gold with heavy victories in their final clashes.

The men hammered hosts Slovakia 14-0 in yesterday’s decider in Bratislava, with the women notching an 8-0 victory over Turkey in their final in Lisbon.

Having not fielded at U21 level since 2004, Ireland’s return to the grade saw them competing in the third division of the EuroHockey Junior Nations Championships, due to a lack of ranking points.

A strong men’s squad containing six senior Irish internationals was always going to be favourites in a quadrangular tournament featuring developing nations Bulgaria, Slovakia and Lithuania.

But coach Brendon Carolan admitted it was “never great to beat guys like that, trying to develop hockey in own country” as Ireland handed out a series of beatings that saw them finish up with 51 goals scored and none conceded in four games, including a championship record 17-0 demolition of Bulgaria.

It completed a dominant summer of U21 hockey that saw the side go through nine games unbeaten, hit 70 goals with just four conceded and add a Junior Celtic Cup to their European silverware. Ireland will now compete in the European B division in 2014.

The script was a similar one for Rudi Wortmann’s women’s U21s, although they had a scare in their final pool clash against Azerbaijan, scraping home 2-1 when, admittedly, they had one foot in the final prior to hit-off thanks to hitting 11 goals without reply past Turkey and Portugal.

They then lined out to face the Turks again in the gold medal game, and it was all too easy with Naomi Carroll and Nicola Gray claiming braces.

Gray top-scored for Ireland with five in four games while Catholic Institute starlet Carroll had the distinction of being the only player to score in every game for the Irish. They too finish the summer with the Junior Celtic Cup in their grasp to add to their European C Division gold, and promotion to the second tier for two years’ time.