Double defeat to give Ireland tough quarter-final

Ireland 0 Japan 3

They let a 2-0 lead slip on Saturday evening against the tournament hosts, ultimately falling 4-3.

A 3-0 loss followed against a youthful Japanese side featuring four players who debuted just a day earlier, meaning Ireland are likely to be left in the bottom two of their group and likely to play either Malaysia or Korea in Thursday’s vital knockout game.

Both sides would come with plenty of emotional baggage. The former are coached by Paul Revington and assisted by Arul Anthoni (the duo that left the Irish set-up in the summer after bringing Ireland to within a few minutes of Olympic qualification.)

Tournament top ranks Korea, meanwhile, were the side to edge the Irish out of the Games with a winning goal seven seconds from time in the final play-off.

Against Japan, Ireland were left deflated after an initially dominant performance as they were stung by lightning quick counter-attacks.

Mitch Darling, Timmy Cockram and Chris Cargo had gone close in the opening phases and Ireland were undone 17 minutes in against the run of play, Kazuhiro Tsubouchi nabbing one from the Asian side’s first corner.

Tomonori Ono added the second in the closing quarter and Shinji Kawauchi completed the win late on from a three-on-one breakout.

The nature of the tournament means the losses are not fatal as the group phase’s purpose is solely to determine quarter-final pairings. But a clear split in standard in the opposite group means Ireland would have preferred a date with either Canada or Poland.

Domestically, UCC were the big winners in the women’s Irish Senior Cup with a 3-1 success over Trinity on a weekend marked by a number of frost-based cancellations.

Catholic Institute’s date with Pegasus has been pushed back to December 8 as Rosbrien was deemed unplayable.

Meanwhile, Munster picked up a creditable second place in the U18 Interpros, adding a 2-2 draw against Ulster to their Friday night win over the same province in Garryduff.

Leinster won that title with a perfect four wins from four.

Ireland (vs Japan): D Harte, C Harte, J Jackson, R Gormley, P Gleghorne, E Magee, G McCabe, A McConnell, P Caruth, M Watt, M Darling Subs: B McCandless, T Cockram, J Jermyn, S Loughrey, P Caruth, C Cargo.