Honeymoon over for Ireland as they face mighty Belgians again

READY TO CAUSE AN UPSET: Shane O'Donoghue's honeymoon was shortened as Ireland caused a stir and beat powerhouse of hockey Belgium.  Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Picture the scene. A pair of newlyweds on honeymoon in Majorca. A beautiful restaurant. And the husband stuck on his phone for an hour catching up with the office.

Look, Shane O’Donoghue couldn’t help himself and wife Emma likely understood. Like O’Donoghue, sport is in her family’s blood and you probably don’t marry an international hockey player two months out from their second Olympics Games without expecting ‘work’ to find him.

Ireland had qualified for the Games back in January but the months since had been a tough grind with defeat following defeat in the elite FIH Pro League. Some were close but others were blow-outs. Spain beat them 7-0. Australia and the Netherlands had put five on them.

They had played rounds in India and in Spain but O’Donoghue, Ireland’s leading goalscorer, had arranged for his nuptials to take place in May while the team was in Belgium for another quartet of fixtures.

Then the unexpected happened, Ireland beat Belgium 2-1 while the happy couple were breaking bread and plans changed.

“I remember watching the first game in the middle of a restaurant in Majorca, absolutely jumping around the place with joy. In all my years, we’ve never beaten Belgium. They are one of the big powerhouses, they’ve won World Cups, Olympics, Europeans.” 

This was a Wednesday. By Friday night he was home. By Saturday morning he was in Antwerp to watch the side put it up to Argentina, Olympic champions in 2016. Two days later he faced the South Americans in another tight game, and then came the highlight.

An eye-opening defeat of the Belgians.

“To beat them 4-1 and to kind of beat them the way we did, and the fashion we did… We beat them off the pitch, there was no question about it.

“And I think that’s a testament to this group is, when the belief is there, and we’re confident, we definitely can compete with the best in the world. So definitely that’s given us a good bit of confidence.

“It probably has woken them up, a little bit as well. It’s a team, as I said, that’s won everything. So maybe there might be a bit of a challenge there around motivating themselves again.” 

Belgium played a more experimental side against the Irish but any dangers in raising their awareness levels with those two results is more than countered by the badly-needed boost it gave to the Irish.

Their pool in this Olympic Games is brutal. Ranked eleventh in the world, all five of their opponents stand somewhere in the top ten and they get their business underway with a Saturday opener against said Belgians.

O’Donoghue is one of only three players here who took part in the Games in Rio eight years ago and he readily admits that this group is far less experienced than the one that didn’t progress beyond the group stages.

He admits to mixed feelings about it now: pride in making history by being there as the first Irish team in a field event since 1948 and the first in hockey in 104 years, but a sense of regret that they maybe let the occasion get to them as well.

More history will attach itself to their first game against Belgium here at the Stade Yves Du Manoir. Formerly known as Stade Colombes, it was the main venue for the 1924 Games in the French capital where Ireland competed as an independent nation for the first time.

“It’s obviously very special. I think this team has been on a bit of a roller coaster of a journey and then covid in the middle of that definitely challenged our progression and development. I think qualifying for this Olympics is probably extra-special given its 100 years on as well.

“For a lot of the players, it’s their first time going to an Olympic Games and then you go to a stadium like that and it makes it extra special to really put your best foot forward and have no regrets leaving Paris in hopefully three/ four weeks’ time.”