More games for us is good news - Ireland hockey's Dancer

The victory means the Green Army will finish, at worst, in 12th place overall and can finish in ninth should they outdo China on Tuesday, improving on their current ranking of 13.

Ireland’s Kathryn Mullan speaks to the team. ©INPHO/Frank Uijlenbroek

Women’s World Cup ranking match Ireland 2 (S Hawkshaw, R Upton) South Africa 0 

In the grand scheme, Ireland’s 2-0 success over South Africa is likely to be a small footnote in the World Cup story, Sean Dancer was still keen to get tangible results from these ranking matches.

Sarah Hawkshaw and Róisín Upton notched a neat penalty corner goal each in either half to put a leaden-legged South Africa in the rear-view mirror.

It means the Green Army will finish, at worst, in 12th place overall and can finish in ninth should they outdo China on Tuesday, improving on their current ranking of 13.

More importantly, these fixtures give Dancer more competitive game time for his side to gel in a competitive environment given the dearth of international fixtures available recently.

“This game was very important around performance and a result, but also the way we played and I was certainly happy how we did that and Tuesday will be no different. It will be about how we play for the group.

“I was on the other side [with New Zealand in 2018] when we got knocked out early and hung around for nothing. So to get some classification games is a positive and it gives us more hockey to play.

“We’ve got a lot to play for; it’s not just for the ranking points but around us as a group and where we are trying to get to.” It also helped discover some hidden elements. Katie McKee had her biggest impact of the tournament, a spritely presence in the forward line while her first penalty corner injections were spot on and should see her feature in that key role.

On the downside, Caoimhe Perdue - the standout newcomer this week - will likely miss the China game with a handy injury. Either Erin Getty or Siofra O’Brien will come in to replace her.

Ireland: A McFerran, M Carey, R Upton, S Hawkshaw, K Mullan, H McLoughlin, S Torrans, L Tice, N Carroll, C Perdue, E Curran Subs: S McAuley, Z Malseed, C Beggs, K McKee, D Duke, C Hamill, L Murphy 

South Africa: P Mbande, K Paton, O Zulu, L-M Deetlefs, E Christie, L du Plessis, B Coston, Q Bobbs, T Lombard. J-L du Toit, H Louw Subs: E Molikoe, R Johnson, H Pearce, M Ramasimong, S-L Simmons, K de Waal, M Serage 

Officials: I Presenqui (ARG), A Neumann (AUS)