Heartbreak as Irish men miss out on World Cup qualification

But 1-1 at full-time left it down to the shoot-out and Welsh goalkeeper Toby Reynolds-Cotterill kept out four efforts with Rupert Shipperley and Jack Pritchard doing the damage in a 2-1 win for the hosts.

Ireland's Benjamin Walker

Men’s World Cup qualifier 

Ireland 1 (M Robson) 

Wales 1 (J Naughalty)

Wales win shoot-out 2-1 

Ireland’s men suffered shoot-out heartache again as they came unstuck against Wales in Cardiff in their World Cup qualifier. Defeat means they miss out on the 2023 showpiece event in India.

The Green Machine had lost out on the Olympics via the same method to Canada and this was similarly devastating as a huge second half performance could not yield the vital goal in normal time.

Michael Robson had given Ireland a first minute lead, countered by Joey Naughalty’s equaliser on 19 minutes. Wales had the edge in the first half but it was Mark Tumilty’s side who looked best placed to win it in the second.

But 1-1 at full-time left it down to the shoot-out and Welsh goalkeeper Toby Reynolds-Cotterill kept out four efforts with Rupert Shipperley and Jack Pritchard doing the damage in a 2-1 outcome.

“We started well, got ahead before having a disappointing second quarter,” Tumilty reflected. “We played well in the second half, created plenty of chances but unfortunately we weren’t able to take one of them and then we didn’t deliver in the shoot-out. It’s as straight-forward as that. The momentum was going in our favour [late on]. We did all the right things, started to find space but we just couldn’t find that killer ball or that killer touch to get the goal we needed. It’s another hard lesson for these players and a disappointing day for Irish men’s hockey.” 

Ireland will close out the tournament with a third place playoff against Austria but the ultimate prize from this competition has proven out of reach. “Tomorrow’s a game where we will have a green shirt on and we want to win but it doesn’t mean a whole lot other than a few world ranking points,” Tumilty added. “We need to regroup and go again to finish the tournament on a high but it’s a difficult day.” 

IRELAND: J Carr, T Cross, J McKee, K Marshall, S O’Donoghue, S Murray, J Duncan, M Robson, B Walker, C Harte, L Cole 

Subs: L Madeley, D Walsh, N Glassey, P McKibbin, C Empey, S Hyland, M Ingram 

WALES: T Reynolds-Cotterill D Kyriakides, I Wall, A Dinnie, J Draper, L Prosser, R Shipperley, R Bradshaw, G Furlong, J Morgan, L Hawker 

Subs: J Naughalty, R Furlong, J Carson, D Hutchinson, O Dolan-Gray, J Pritchard, I Tranter 

 Umpires: N Bennett (ENG), J Mejzlik (CZE)