Coach Rob Abbott 'immensely proud' of Irish effort at indoor championship
The The Ireland Hockey At Championships Picture: Peted Ireland Indoor That Team
Irish women’s indoor coach Rob Abbott said he was “immensely proud” of his side’s efforts at the EuroHockey Indoor Championship II in Spain in their first appearance at this level for 30 years.
Ultimately, they fell to five defeats out of five to end the competition in last place but, with a tournament restructure for 2024, Abbott says there will be plenty of take from this series when they compete at the same level in two years time.
“Immensely proud of how the girls played,” Abbott said after the tournament. “I certainly can’t fault the commitment, heart or morale. The camaraderie on and off the pitch has been great fun. Big learning curve; we have to improve in areas but overall I deem this a success. They represented Irish indoor hockey pretty well.”
To illustrate the point, Abbott’s side only had eight hours of training time since Christmas together as a group while Belgium, second place overall, had 15 hours per week of contact time.
After defeats to Poland and Belgium on Friday, Ireland put it up to world number seven side Switzerland in Saturday’s game three with Orla Patton and Lily Lloyd on the mark but a late run saw them fall 5-2.
Scotland then edged Ireland out 3-2 with Orla Macken grabbing both goals - her first on the international stage. Against tournament hosts Spain, Ireland produced some strong hockey but were undone by a more composed side whose 4-0 victory earned them gold.
“Disappointed not to get a result as I felt we deserved one or two, especially against the Swiss and Scotland. It might sound a little crazy for the Swiss game when we lost by four but it was the best we played with the ball, the most chances we created. The stroke was a big momentum swing."
On the domestic front, the leading trio in men’s Munster’s Division One all won with Cork C of I edging out Catholic Institute in Limerick 2-1, Bandon beating UCC 4-2 thanks to a Ross Smyth hat trick while Cork Harlequins won 4-0 over Ashton.
Limerick and Waterford topped their respective Irish Hockey Challenge groups to reach the semi-finals with the former beating Mullingar 5-1 and the latter 4-2 winners over Midleton.
In the women’s Munster Senior Cup, UCC overcame a tough battle against Waterford to win 2-0 with Nikki Barry and Jane Murphy doing the damage.
They join Cork Harlequins, Catholic Institute and Cork C of I all advancing to the semi-finals.