Men's Hockey Interprovincial tournament: Ulster elevated the standard of senior interprovincial hockey to a new level over the weekend in Belfast when they retained the title in style, following up Saturday's 8-0 drubbing of Munster with a convincing 5-1 success over Leinster at the Queen's University Playing Fields yesterday.
Former Ireland women's coach Terry Gregg made no secret of the fact he's be adopting a "route-one" strategy and it certainly paid rich dividends. Indeed, only a heavy defeat by Leinster yesterday would have prevented his team from winning the tournament as their goal difference was infinitely superior to that of Simon Filgas's charges, who had, crucially, lost 2-1 to Munster on Friday evening.
The Ulster coach was naturally delighted at the outcome and the manner in which it was achieved. Forty incursions into the Leinster circle over the 70 minutes spoke volumes. Gregg, however, acknowledged the fact it was something of a gamble.
"We set out our stall to change the conventional way in which the game of hockey is played." he explained. "We abandoned the idea of attempting to play a possession game which is boring for spectators and players alike. The theory was to play an attacking, enterprising sort of game although it's a high-risk strategy.
"While we had a golden weekend though, I wouldn't guarantee it would work all the time. It was refreshing to see how a group of, by and large, younger players adapted to the plan so all credit to them."
It took Ulster just 50 seconds to get off the mark when Ian Hamilton, the province's leading scorer in the season just ended, opened with a clinical penalty-corner conversion. Mark Gleghorne, another teenager, added number two six minutes later.
With less than a quarter of the game gone Leinster must have been fearing an even bigger defeat when two of Ulster's more seasoned campaigners got in on the act. Mark Irwin played a delightful one-two with international colleague Mark Raphael, who scored to put Ulster firmly in the driving seat by the interval.
Timmy Cockram then provided the opportunity for Hamilton to turn and shoot in one movement for number four in the 40th minute and, within two minutes, the Annadale player completed his hat-trick with his trademark drag-flick at a penalty corner. Leinster's consolation goal was scored by Ian Allen in the 67th minute.
In yesterday's other game, Munster came from 2-0 down to defeat the Shamrocks (Irish under-21s) 4-2, the goals coming from Dave Eakins, David Lombard, Karl Burns and John Aherne after John Jackson and Mark Daniel had scored for the students.
