After the brightest of possible starts, when they took the lead in the first minute, Ireland went down to Germany in Barcelona yesterday in their opening match of a four-nations tournament that signals the beginning of their build-up to March's Olympic qualifier in Milton Keynes.

Vice-captain Arlene Thompson converted the first of her team's four penalty corners against the European silver medallists. The Germans, though, were back on level terms just six minutes later when poor defending allowed Fanny Rinne to force the ball past Tara Browne. By the 17th minute Ireland were behind, punished by an unchallenged Inga Moeller who collected a free-hit from just outside the circle to score.

An unstoppable reverse stick shot from Corneila Reiter completed the scoring in the 21st minute and signalled a more encouraging spell from Ireland, particularly in the second half when they defended with more composure and were more competitive in midfield. "Not too bad," was coach Riet Kuper's verdict, stressing that it was Ireland's first match since August while the Germans have played a number of games.

"Some aspects of our display were quite pleasing," said Kuper, who expects another difficult game today against Spain who beat Britain 1-0 yesterday.

IRELAND: T Browne, L Caulfield, A Thompson, D Sixsmith, P Magill, M Logue (capt), L Brown, R Kohler, C McMahon, J Burke, L McVicker. Subs: K Humphreys, J Orbinson, K O'Brien.