Ireland suffer setbacks in U18 Eurohockey openers

It was a disappointing start to the U18 Eurohockey Championships for Ireland, with both the boys and girls losing their opening games.

The boys were first in action and were always going to be up against it as they took on Germany at the Mardyke, Cork losing 5-0 in the end.

Though the Germans dominated from the off, Ireland were unlucky not to take an early lead when Conor Empey played a great ball into the circle, but David Rae just failed to get a touch.

The German pressure told and with 11 minutes gone, Fedor Bock scored from a penalty corner. Jan Schiffer doubled the lead, again from a corner, and they could have been further ahead by half-time only for a brilliant save from keeper Luke Roleston.

Ten minutes into the second half and they made it 3-0, when Eric Knobling scored, after a brilliant move down their right wing.

By now they were dominating and two minutes later it was four, when Schiffer got his second.

Teo Hinrichs rounded off the scoring late on for a comprehensive German win.

The girls were up against England and were 2-0 down at half-time, with Sophie Jefferson and Tess Howard scoring for the visitors. Ireland were also dealt a massive blow early on when they lost their captain and keeper, Emma Buckley, to injury, with Elizabeth Murphy taking over.

The second half saw a much-improved performance from the Irish side, but they couldn’t break down the English defence.

England’s third goal came with 12 minutes to go when Lily Wolstenholme scored to see them win by 3-0.

In other games played yesterday in the boys’ competition, Spain beat Italy 5-2 and Belgium had an 8-0 win over Czech Republic. Netherlands and England drew 2-2.

In the girls championship, the Netherlands had a 3-2 win over Spain and Belgium beat Poland 7-0. Russia had a surprise 3-2 win over Germany.