Ireland men secure best Hockey World Cup finish despite French loss

Wins over South Africa and Malaysia keep Ireland top of their classification pool

Ireland’s Luke Witherow strikes the ball agains France. Pic ©INPHO/Rodrigo Jaramillo

Hockey World Cup: Ireland 1 France 2 

Ireland's men have secured a best ever FIH Hockey World Cup finish despite defeat to France in their final classification pool game.

Wins over South Africa and Malaysia keep Ireland top of that section and they will face the winners of Pakistan and New Zealand next Friday in the 9th/10th place game.

A largely uneventful first half saw the sides size each other up, but a breakthrough finally came early in the second half as Jeremy Duncan picked the pocket of Eliot Curty, rounding the French goalkeeper and firing into the bottom corner on his reverse stick from a tight angle.

France responded when a venture into the Irish circle just three minutes later ended in a penalty corner which gave Victor Chalet the opportunity to fire powerfully into the bottom corner.

France remained in the ascendency going into the final quarter, finding routes into the Irish circle, but Ireland performed their defensive duties well. Needing a win, France rolled the dice, withdrawing goalkeeper Corentin Saunier in favour of an additional outfield player, an advantage they used effectively to win a penalty corner which required the intervention of Jaime Carr to parry over the bar.

France, though, found their winner in the final two minutes, a deft touch in front of Carr from Timothée Clemént deflecting the ball into the Irish net.

Discussing their top spot finish in Pool H, Ireland’s Jeremy Duncan said: “It’s brilliant. One of our goals at the start of the tournament if we didn’t get into the top eight was to be in that 9th/10th play-off. We are delighted to be in that game. We are ninth in the world at the moment, and we want to finish at that ranking.”