Meredith hails spirited Ireland

Ireland coach Andrew Meredith was relieved to see his side escape from New Delhi with qualification for round three of the World League yesterday.

Having seen off minnows Oman 7-2 on Saturday, Ireland produced their best performance of the tournament to see off China 4-0 in their crunch game yesterday, Shane O’Donoghue augmenting Peter Brown’s opener with a hat-trick of drag-flicks.

A tough build-up with absent players and frozen off training sessions were far from ideal preparation but Ireland came close to claiming the tournament outright.