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Irish Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ireland twice give up lead to lose to Scotland at EuroHockey Championships
EuroHockey Championships: Ireland 2 Scotland 3 It was another tale of woe for Ireland at the EuroHockey Championships in Mönchengladbach on Friday when they twice gave up a lead against Scotland to lose 3-2 in their fifth to eighth place classification pool. Róisín Upton had ended Ireland's three-and-a-half-hour goal drought at the tournament when she converted a third quarter penalty stroke after Eve Pearson had stick-tackled Katie Mullan as she shaped up for a strike on goal. They held on to that lead until a madcap five-minute spell in the final quarter. First, Caoimhe Perdue conceded a stroke when she went in high with her elbow on Heather McEwan, Charlotte Watson equalising from the spot. Katie Mullan restored Ireland's lead two minutes later, though, when she was brilliantly picked out in the circle by Upton, Mullan firing low to Jess Buchanan's right. But it went pear-shaped for Gareth Grundie's side in the space of two minutes when, first, Amy Costello buried a penalty corner before McEwan made it 3-2. What proved to be the winner was an unfortunate one for Ireland, Ellie Mackenzie's long-range shot hitting the post, rebounding off Lizzie Murphy's back to leave McEwan with a simple tap-in. READ MORE On the whole, it was a deserved win for the Scots, ranked two places below Ireland, after they had the better of the bulk of the game. They forced seven penalty corners to Ireland's none, once again Murphy proving to be a more than able deputy for the injured Ayeisha McFerran, making fine saves from Sarah Robertson, Caterina Nelli and Ruth Blaikie. Ireland finish up their tournament against England on Sunday and are in danger of finishing in the bottom two for the first time since 2013. Ireland : E Murphy, E Curran, H McLoughlin, S McAuley, C Perdue, K McKee, S Hawkshaw (capt), C Hamill, N Carey, K Mullan, S Torrans. Rolling subs : M Carey, R Upton, C Beggs, K Larmour, M Power, E Kealy, H Micklem.
Irish Times
09-08-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ireland targeting best ever Women's EuroHockey finish
It's been seven years since Ireland played in the World Cup final against the Netherlands. Heady days. Nobody saw it coming. But when it did, Ireland's success grabbed the country. The World Cup venue adjacent to the Olympic Stadium on the east side of London was taken over as sunshine melted the roads around Canning Town and Stratford. Irish hockey had never seen anything like it. The current Irish captain Sarah Hawkshaw, a good friend of the 2018 captain Katie Mullan, who remains in the current squad with another World Cup medal winner, Róisín Upton, tells the story Mullan told her of knocking down stereotypes, lancing perceptions. 'In terms of the World Cup we would speak a bit of how as a team they were able to get themselves in a position that they were so motivated to succeed,' says Hawkshaw. READ MORE 'Even the funny stories, where they had to check into the room every day because people would write them off and they'd keep winning and they'd keep having to check in again the next day because they were due to leave.' It's a greatly changed group of players now but looking towards the 2025 European Championships next week in Mönchengladbach, if there is one thing the squad understands it is believing that they are as good as they want to be. They do not create limitations based on other people's perceptions. Hawkshaw has been team captain since December of last year and is a veteran of the 2023 Euros and the Tokyo Olympic Games. Ireland agonisingly fell just short of qualifying for Paris when they were beaten by Great Britain in January 2024 at the qualifiers in Valencia. Ireland's Sarah McCauley and Michelle Carey dejected after losing to Great Britain in 2023. Photograph: Frank Uijlenbroek/Inpho 'Personally it was very, very hard for a while to retain motivation, to get going again,' says Hawkshaw of that defeat. 'Attaching your motivation to a new goal can be hard, when you have almost given everything for the last goal, that you didn't achieve. It took time to process that, but I found I must be happy in my life to be able to perform in my sport. That became a big focus for me.' But Tokyo 2020 was a game changer, too, in that it was the first time an Irish women's hockey team had qualified for an Olympic Games. Sarah Torrans, Hannah McLoughlin and Sarah McAuley, who are travelling to Germany, were also part of the Olympic squad. Aside from the transition in players, the management has changed too. Since 2018, World Cup coach Graham Shaw has left. Sean Dancer joined as head coach in May 2019, having moved from his role as assistant coach in New Zealand, and took the team to the Olympics, a World Cup and to fifth in Europe, equalling the team's best result. The current coach, Gareth Grundie, was appointed last October. 'I think a lot of change has happened in the last year that's been good for the squad,' says Hawkshaw. 'Gareth has come in and he has challenged a lot of the ways that we play and the standards we set. But he was with us in the lead-up to Tokyo under Sean Dancer so we have that understanding of the hockey he brings. 'A lot of our players have also played in the European Leagues for the past three years and that changes things a lot. Hockey is quite a small world when you get outside of Ireland and play. That dynamic has brought up the standard and brought up the level of expectations we have of each other and ourselves as a country.' Ireland's Ireland head coach Gareth Grundie. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho But for her school, Mount Sackville in Dublin, Hawkshaw may never have played hockey. As a child she joined local GAA club St Brigid's and began playing football. Good enough to play underage and minors for Dublin, she was in secondary school before a hockey stick was ever put in her hand. She was also a competitive cross-country athlete, who ran for her school and with Clonliffe Harriers. Her brother David, who played rugby with Leinster and is now with Connacht, was also a talented St Brigid's hurler. Hewon a Leinster minor hurling championship with Dublin in 2016 and played in an All-Ireland minor semi-final against Limerick at Croke Park. A sports scholarship took Hawkshaw to the University of Massachusetts, where she played collegiate hockey for four years, making her Ireland debut against Chile in 2019. 'Through the years of football, under-16s, minor, I still remember those days as amazing, what team culture can be and how you can be part of something that is bigger than yourself and you can carry that through life,' she says. 'Something I always had was good fitness. I used to run quite competitively, so I was put on [in GAA] just to run after somebody, so that worked in my favour. I was midfield. I was probably a player who valued feeling connected to the players around me to be able to perform. 'I didn't know what hockey was until I went to Mount Sackville. We were all in Brigid's from the mini-leagues up. I absolutely loved it. Then the natural transition was when you go to Mount Sackville and pick up a hockey stick. That was it. The exciting new thing you do at the time. Sarah Hawkshaw in action for Ireland against the Netherlands in 2021. Photograph: Frank Uijlenbroek/Inpho 'I remember the first time I was trying to play hockey out on the road, ripping up the bottom of our sticks because we'd just bought them. We were playing camogie, didn't know what we were doing.' In Mönchengladbach, Ireland have been handed a tough draw for the pool games. The Netherlands, the number one ranked team in the world, are first up, then France, who are six places below Ireland's ranking of 11th, and finally the sixth-ranked home side Germany. A goal would be a semi-final as the top three teams qualify for the next World Cup, which take place in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2026. 'I don't mind putting goals to these tournaments,' says Hawkshaw. 'I think we have a tough group. I don't know how it is every single time in a major we draw Holland for the first game. But it's an unbelievable fixture to get. 'So we have Holland, Germany and France. France, we'd expect ourselves to be up to beat them. Germany is going to be a challenge, but we are targeting that game as one we can win. We get out if we do that and we can put ourselves in a semi-final spot. 'So, 100 per cent we are looking to push that finish [fifth] one or two steps farther. We know there is World Cup qualification that comes out of this as well. It's looking like it will have to be top three for us to qualify with another tournament next year if we don't get it from the Europeans.' Women's Eurohockey Championship schedule (all times Irish, all games live on RTÉ) Saturday, August 9th: Ireland v The Netherlands, 2.30pm; Monday, August 11th : Ireland v France, 2.45pm; Wednesday, August 13th: Ireland v Germany, 7pm; Friday, August 15th: Crossover match 1; Sunday, August 17th: Crossover match 2. Ireland squad : Elizabeth Murphy, Holly Micklem, Ellen Curran, Katie Larmour, Sarah McAuley, Hannah McLoughlin, Caoimhe Perdue, Róisín Upton, Charlotte Beggs, Michelle Carey, Christina Hamill, Sarah Hawkshaw (capt), Emily Kealy, Katie McKee, Niamh Carey, Katie Mullan, Mikayla Power, Sarah Torrans.
Irish Times
04-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Railway Union make history as they beat Loreto again to retain Champions Trophy
A 2-1 victory over Loreto in Banbridge on Sunday saw Railway Union become the first club to win the Champions Trophy two years in a row. Railway won the competition for the first time last season by beating the same opposition, their success securing them a place in next season's European Hockey League, with Loreto going in to the second level of that competition. While Railway needed a last-minute penalty stroke from Róisín Upton to win last year's final, this time the Limerick woman gave them a first-quarter lead from a penalty corner. And Emma Smyth doubled that advantage soon after when she sent a reverse strike past Elizabeth Murphy after the Loreto goalkeeper had saved Katie Mullan's initial shot. There was no more scoring until 11 minutes from time when Caitlin Sherin converted a penalty stoke for Loreto, but despite being a player down in the closing stages, after Mullan was green-carded, Railway held on for a deserved victory. Railway had beaten Ulster Elks 2-0 in Saturday's semi-finals, while a double from Emily Kealy sent Loreto on their way to a 2-1 win over Old Alexandra. The sides have been the chief contenders for all three of the season's major prizes, Loreto having beaten Railway to the Hockey League title. And next Saturday, they meet in the Irish Senior Cup final. Some rivalry.
