Ireland are expecting a vastly different challenge from France on Monday afternoon in their second game of the women’s EuroHockey Championships in Mönchengladbach, Germany (2.45pm Irish time, Live on RTÉ 2).
After losing to the Dutch 2-0 in their opening game on Saturday, Ireland have faith in their defensive system that kept the World, Olympic and European champions down to two goals, goalkeeper Lizzy Murphy and some doughty defending from Ireland stopping the Netherlands from ever getting fully into top gear.
The Dutch have won the gold medal in four of the last five Olympic Games and were winners in the last four European Championships going back to 2017.
“Control the game where they had possession and if we could keep it in their territory then we’d be happy and I think we showed we could do that,” said Irish captain Sarah Hawkshaw.
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“We had a few opportunities out there and we know we are lethal on the counterattack. It is something we take pride in. We’ll take that game, settle, learn from it and take it into the France game.”
In contrast Ireland lost to the Dutch 6-0 in the 2018 World Cup final in London, so 2-0 can be construed as a positive performance and maybe fortuitous to have faced the tournament favourites in the first Pool A match.
The opening Dutch goal came when Lisa Post worked her way into the circle from right to left and surged into the Irish danger zone after 10 minutes.
A cracking backhand shot was saved by the outstanding Murphy in goal but deflected away to hit Irish defender Sarah McAuley on the body. The Netherlands’ Jooseje Burg was first to the loose ball at the left post and swatted it in for 1-0.
The second goal came in the third quarter when a frustrated Ibby Jansen realigned herself at the Netherlands’ fifth penalty corner of the game.
The 25-year-old, who will likely be closing in on 100 international goals by the time these Euros are over, finally beat Murphy low and hard after the Irish goalkeeper had pulled off a succession of saves at the set piece and in open play.
Although losing the match, Ireland succeeded in frustrating the Dutch with the entire team involved in a stubborn, physical defence. The Dutch earned eight penalty corners and scored from just one, which they will see as a poor return.
“The Dutch are the best in the world, and they are the best in the world for a reason,” said Hawkshaw. “The girls’ defensive effort was incredible and to run down so many PCs [penalty corners] against the number one drag flicker … just so proud of them.
“Look, she [Jansen] had enough chances, and she got one. We’ll take that. We knew in the game we wouldn’t have a huge amount of ball, so we tried to control the game off the ball.”
The result against France will be pivotal to Ireland’s hopes of then getting something out of the match against Germany on Wednesday in the last of their pool games.
A semi-final, where no Irish hockey team have ever been at the Euros, is the target and a win against the French is a must to keep that alive.
“We have a solid defence. We want to maintain that,” said Hawkshaw about facing France. “And we want to get more out of on the ball, a bit more patience building attack and grow into the game a little bit more. We’ll have a few more opportunities than we had today.”
Ireland are ranked 11th in the world with France in 19th place.
IRELAND: E Murphy, E Curran, H McLoughlin, R Upton, S McAuley, K McKee, S Hawkshaw (capt), C Hamil, S Torrans, N Carey, M Carey.
Rolling subs: K Mullan, C Perdue, C Beggs, Larmour, M Power, E Kealy, K Larmour.
