Jermyn treble gets sluggish Ireland off the mark

Munster stars took centre stage on the opening day of the men’s Champions Challenge II, with John Jermyn and David Harte the standout performers during a jittery 3-0 win for Ireland over Chile in Dublin. Jermyn nailed three set-pieces to claim a hat-trick, while Harte was in inspired form at the other end as Chile manufactured a number of chances, only for the pool’s bottom seeds to be let down by some fine goalkeeping and wayward finishing.

Harte thwarted four corners and was quick off his line on a couple of other occasions to thwart the Chileans, who took full advantage of Ireland’s sluggishness on the ball. While the Irish managed to create just five chances, they at least converted three, while the other two efforts struck the uprights. Jermyn manufactured and converted a corner to get Ireland off to a good start on eight minutes, but Felipe Montegu was allowed too much space to run at the Irish defence as the side failed to settle. Alexis Berzcely missed a gilt-edge chance when left one-on-one with Harte four yards out, but his weak reverse effort dribbled wide. And when Eugene Magee won a second corner for Jermyn to double the lead, Ireland looke on course for an easy win. Jermyn subsequently skimmed the outside of the post after a lovely length-of-the-field breakaway, but the jitters continued at the back, with Tim Lewis’ last-gasp intercept keeping the goal intact after a mix-up between Joe Brennan and skipper Ronan Gormley. Jermyn put the result beyond doubt in the second half from the penalty spot, after Magee was chopped down in the circle, and David Hobbs hit a post late on as Harte’s saves ensured a slightly fortuitous clean sheet. Irish coach Paul Revington was predictably unimpressed with his side’s stop-start performance, saying: “I am very disappointed with the overall performance, as we set ourselves higher standards. We will have to perform at a consistently higher level for longer periods tomorrow if we are to end up on top against Japan.”

In the pool’s other game, Poland saw off Japan 3-2, with Malaysia doing likewise to Austria in Pool B. France had the best of an eight-goal thriller with Russia, winning 5-3. For full reports of these games, click here. Meanwhile, Ireland’s U18 girls face an uphill battle to emerge from their pool at the EuroHockey Youth Nations Championships at Nivelles in Belgium, after going down 2-1 to Belgium on day one, with Katie Codyre nabbing the Irish goal. The U18 boys, who are in action in Vienna, saw their game with Ukraine abandoned after just five minutes due to unplayable conditions. It will instead be played at 8.30am today (Tuesday). For more of Adrian Boehm’s photos from the Ireland vs Chile game, click here