Ireland set to put on show

Ireland’s senior women’s basketball squad ramp up preparations this week for a return to international competition with back-to-back games in Waterford and Cork against a crack team of Americans playing in the Women’s Premier League.

The squad went down 63-57 to the American ‘Victory Scholars’ last weekend in Dublin, proving a valuable step towards June’s FIBA European Championships for small countries in Gibraltar. It was the first senior women’s international since the enforced axeing of the programme in 2009. Crucially, though, the programme is being funded by the players themselves to a large degree.

“It’s great to be back and that’s the first thing,” reflected Ireland’s head coach, Mark Scannell. “We wanted to play the Victory Scholars because we knew we were going to get good matches. We trained hard before the game and maybe left a little of ourselves on the practise court, but we’ve two games left to try and get the win.”