Dutch hit form after Ireland denied a draw

The Netherlands hit form in a serious way yesterday afternoon in the second of two challenge matches against Ireland in Seville, routing a tired Irish side 5-0. Ireland had been unlucky not to get a draw in Sunday’s 3-2 defeat to the same opposition, but hree goals inside 23 minutes meant there was no real hope of a result from an early stage. Robert Kemperman dodged three defenders to play Teun de Nooijer to tap home the opener, Roderick Weusthof added a 12th minute penalty corner while Floris Evers made it 3-0 with another back post tap-in. Ireland reduced the turnovers to keep the Dutch at bay for 37 minutes but Rogier Hofman made it 4-0 in the 60th minute and two minutes later Erik Bouwens completed the scoring.

A couple of late Irish corners were repelled as they ended their training time with a harsh lesson from the world number four side. 24 hours previously, Robert van den Horst’s goal seven minutes from time gave the Dutch a 3-2 win. Ireland, who began with John Jermyn on the bench, had led 2-0 at half-time only for an experienced world number four outfit to roar back into contention. Ireland started excellently, scoring in the 10th minute after Amsterdam-based Andy McConnell won a penalty corner which Timmy Cockram flicked into the bottom left corner. And the Irish went 2-0 up with half-time approaching via a top move, working from the back via a series of two-on-ones down the right flank with Cockram crossing for Chris Cargo. He received in the circle and pushed goalwards, taking a deflection and looping over the Dutch goalkeeper. But the Dutch got a foothold in the match eight minutes after the break when Teun de Nooijer – in his 430th international – rode his luck to lash home a volley after an autopass from a five-metre free subsequently saw the ball balloon up. And, from there, the Dutch turned on the style. Wouter Jolie leveled with a straight hit to the bottom right corner from Holland’s third corner and, from another set piece, van den Horst dragged to David Harte’s right. Geoff McCabe and Cockram both went close in the latter stages while two further corners went incomplete to deny a draw. Ireland: David Harte (game 1)/Iain Walker (game 2); Ronan Gormley, Conor Harte, Joe Brennan, John Jackson, Geoff McCabe, David Ames, Andy McConnell, Eugene Magee, Timmy Cockram, Mitch Darling Subs: John Jermyn, Timmy Lewis, Phelie Maguire, Mikey Watt, Chris Cargo (game 1), Bruce McCandless (game 2) Netherlands: Jaap Stockmann, Sander Baart, Billy Bakker, Floris Evers, Rogier Hofman, Robert van Der Horst, Wouter Jolie, Robbert Kempermen, Eby Kessing, Teun De Nooijer, Bob De Voogd Subs: Eiik Bouwens, Quirijin Caspers, Tim Jenniskens, Valentin Verga, Klaas Vermeulen