Irish fired up for clash with Germany after stunning opening win

Ireland’s Olympic qualification campaign is already ahead of schedule following a stunning 4-1 success over South Africa on day one of World League 3 in Valencia yesterday.

Darren Smith’s charges, needing to finish at least fourth in their five-team pool to advance to the quarter-finals and get two shots at getting to Rio, had spoke in the build-up about the need to continue their recent habit of defeating higher-ranked sides.

That realistically means defeating lowly Uruguay in a later pool game as a minimum requirement. But the Green Army gave their hopes an even bigger boost with yesterday’s success over the South Africans — ranked three places above Ireland, at 11th in the world — inspired by a Nikki Evans hat-trick and a stunning solo goal by Nicci Daly.