Irish Success vs United Kingdom
Senior Ladies
Ruth Shanahan, Avis Wotton, Dara Mangan, Julie Gallagher, Rhona O’Dwyer, Joanne Lavery, Shirley McDonagh.
Senior Mens
Aidan McDonagh, Eoin O’Donnell, Conor Doyle, James Smyth, Seb Chambers, Paul O’Leary, Aaron Power.
Under 16’s
Sarah Brandon, Mark Cole, Shannon Furlong , Emma Errity, Emily McDonagh, Ellie Byrne, Jennifer Whelan.
U16 Tri Nations
The Under 16’s were involved in a 3 way playoff between Ireland, the UK and the New South Wales team from Australia. The NSW team were the Australian National Champions at under 16 level and as Australia is the home of polocrosse, they were tipped to win this contest at their ease.
The first game, on an immaculately presented pitch, was between the Irish U16’s and NSW U16’s. The match started at a fast pace with the Australian side having by far the better of things. They showed polocrosse skills and horseriding ability that belied their years and the score soon left the Irish side looking decidedly like it was going to be a disastrous weekend for them and the large crowd who had travelled in support. To their credit the supporters never wavered in their encouragement and the Irish U16’s began to find their feet in the later stages of the game, though the first match went to a very smooth looking and obviously well experienced NSW team.
Next up in the U16 competition were the UK vs NSW and this match started at a blistering pace which soon saw the UK side establishing a 4 goal lead which they maintained for the first 4 chukka’s despite the relentless efforts of the Australians. However, in the 5th Chukka the tide began to turn and by the end of the 6th and final Chukka the NSW team ended up winners of their second match despite a fine effort from the UK side.
The 3rd U16 match of the day was between the UK and Ireland. What followed was a amazing transformation. If the UK expected an easy victory they were proved very much mistaken. The Irish team never looked troubled by them and ended with a comfortable win over the UK. All the crowd were talking how much the Irish kids had improved in their 2nd match. The Irish U16’s faced the UK for the 2nd time early on Sunday morning and in spite of a much more determined effort by the UK, the Irish side held on for a one goal win. This mean’t they earned themselves 2nd place overall which was an outstanding performance to say the least.
The Senior mens team met a UK side who looked to be a very polished act in the warm up, but looks can be deceiving and right from the off the UK knew they were dealing with a very different Irish side than those they had previously handled with relative ease. For four of the eight chukkas the match was a hard fought affair with some amazing skill on display from both sides. Ireland, however were not going to be denied and pulled ahead steadily to win the first match 29 – 20.
The talk around the bar Saturday night was of a big push to redeem themselves by the UK, They knew that a major effort would be needed to turn the result of the second match in their favour. The test was to be decided on the accumulated scores of the two matches. The Sunday match started well for Ireland, who were 3 goals to the good in very short order, but a very determined UK side had levelled the score by the end of the first chukka and soon were three goals ahead in the second chukka.
Tri Nations 2010Tri Nations 2010
As polocrosse can be a high scoring game, this turn of events caused some concern among the Irish fans, but with some great play from the Irish lads they were soon back on level terms. The UK side gave everything they had but they only ever got one goal ahead again. By the fifth chukka it was obvious that the test overall would go to the Irish, but the UK were playing for pride and wanted at least to win the second match. Ireland, however had no intention of anyone spoiling their party and put in what could only be described as a total team effort. Though there were some huge individual performances, it would be wrong to single out any one player for mention over his team-mates. For the final three chukkas the Irish Lads put on a display of polocrosse that will be remembered for a while by all those in attendance. They ended the match 30 – 20 and the overall test score was 59 – 40 only one goal short of 100 goals scored in 96 minutes, with skill of the very highest calibre shown by both sides.
The Irish Ladies came up against what is recognised as one of the strongest womens teams in world polocrosse and were beaten 28 – 11 in their match on the Saturday. However, in their match on Sunday they raised their game and put on a show of determined and gutsy polocrosse and went down 22 -14 to the UK. The Ladies are a relatively inexperienced team at this level and with hard work in the coming months should be ready to make an impact at the upcoming World Cup to be held in the UK in July 2011.