History girls. Ireland are into the semi-finals of the Hockey World Cup after they beat India 3-1 on penalties last night, following a quarter-final stalemate at London's Lee Valley Stadium. Ayeisha McFerran was the hero as she saved three of India's four efforts in the shootout, with goals from Roisin Upton, Ali Meeke and Chloe Watkins securing the Green Machine's passage into the last four. The game itself was fraught with scoring chances at a premium, and it was McFerran's brilliance which proved the difference. Afterwards, coach Graham Shaw paid tribute to his 22-year-old goalkeeper. He said: "In the shootout, I knew if we scored two, we would win. The kid in goal is incredible and when you watch our own players try and score on her [in practice], it's incredibly difficult. It gives us this incredible moment, not just for the team but for the sport of hockey in Ireland." Meanwhile Johnny Watterson has suggested the scale of Ireland's achievement in reaching the last four is unprecedented: "Never before has a women's team risen above their station, disrespected theirs and everybody else's world ranking and expectations to pluck a World Cup semi-final from London's Olympic Stadium and modestly place themselves among the aristocrats of the world game. In that impossible fairytale lies the magic." Spain await Ireland in the semi-finals on Saturday (2.0), before Sunday's medal matches.
The All-Ireland semi-final replay between Galway and Clare throws-in on Sunday (2.0) with Limerick awaiting the winners in Croke Park on August 19th. The two sides drew a tumultuous semi-final 1-30 to 1-30 after extra-time last weekend, despite Galway roaring into an early and seemingly unassailable 1-7 to 0-1 lead. Clare clawed it back however and in his column today Jackie Tyrrell has put their revival down to an early change of tactics and a switch to the sweeper system after just 13 minutes, with Colm Galvin going on to have the game of his life. He writes: "They could have stood there and been stubborn about it and made a big show afterwards of going down in flames by sticking to their system. But instead, they rolled the dice and tried to save their championship by putting in Galvin at sweeper despite the fact he had never been used there before." However, he believes the All-Ireland champions won't be caught cold again by the same tactics on Sunday: "Galway are forewarned. Given a week to do their video analysis and to break everything down, I just think they'll work their way around it."
Rory McIlroy is firmly in the mix after he shot a 65 on a low-scoring opening day of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone. The four-time Major winner currently sits at five under par and three shots off the lead of Ian Poulter, who carded a flawless first round of 62 on Thursday to lead by a stroke from American duo Rickie Fowler and Kyle Stanley. Eight-time winner Tiger Woods is also in contention after he started his week at Akron with a 66, and he currently shares 14th place on a tight leaderboard. Ireland's Paul Dunne couldn't join the party, however, and he made two birdies and three bogeys as he battled to an opening round of 71.
Sharjah defied top weight to score for Willie Mullins in the Galway Hurdle yesterday, with Patrick Mullins becoming the first amateur jockey to win the race for 27 years at a soaked Ballybrit. Today the leading trainer sends Limini out for her second race of the week, with the 2016 Cheltenham winner expected to go one better and take the Guinness Handicap (6.50).
Elsewhere Dundalk's European odyssey has come to a premature end after they were thrashed 4-0 away to Cypriot side AEK Larnaca last night - manager Stephen Kenny later describing the performance as "nowhere near good enough."
