Muller not hot on Chilean schedule

Gene Muller is calling on his Ireland players to show “massive resistance” to adversity as they finally begin their World Cup qualifying campaign five days later than originally scheduled against Malaysia (5pm, Irish time) in Santiago this afternoon. The Irish coach believes his side have been thrown a serious curve-ball by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) following Ireland, Scotland and Malaysia’s delay in arriving in Chile for the five-team competition due to the volcanic ash cloud. With just one place on offer at the World Cup in Argentina next August, Ireland must now play four times in five days in the rejigged qualifier. The FIH have scrapped original plans for a group stage leading into a final and will now play a straight, five-team round-robin event with the winner taking the twelfth and final place in the sport’s second biggest event after the Olympics.

But Muller believes that the reschedule, under duress from television producers, has left the three countries affected at a major disadvantage. Australia and Chile played the originally scheduled opening fixture last Saturday, the pre-tournament favourites beating the hosts 5-0. Chile then got back on track on Monday – the day the Irish arrived – with a 1-0 win over Malaysia in a fixture brought forward by a day at just 36 hour’s notice. As a result, Chile and Australia can incorporate four day breaks into their schedules while Ireland play in quick succession and the Scots play on four consecutive days. It’s a situation Gene Muller thinks is inequitable. “It’s quite clearly a case of where television has trumped common sense. There are no doubts these are extraordinary circumstances but the schedule was still controllable. “The tournament falls under the auspices of the FIH and I think they are to be custodians of fairness in these situations. Either it should have been lengthened or started at the same date. “Each team should have been playing under the same conditions. I’m angry about it and it’s quite simply not fair. “To play four matches in five days with only 48 hours acclimatisation is going to require massive resistance to adversity. There’s a lot of adversity now so we really need to be on our game. “It’s not ideal. We tapered for a tournament that was supposed to start last Saturday so effectively the training volume has been down, the intensity has been down because of this uncertainty. Sometimes these things work in your favour.” “We’ve often played series with no acclimatisation in other continents, where you arrive and play within 48 hours. My experience is that it normally catches you on the second or third day. Generally the players will find a way to get up for the first day.” Muller is still fretting over the fitness of captain Eimear Cregan who will become Ireland’s second highest capped player if she makes an appearance, her 162nd, this week. She sat out training last week with a bug while Julia O’Halloran is recovering from a recent knock but should be available to play. Muller added: “The spirit is good; I’m impressed with them with their resilience. They’ve been fantastic and up for it as they need to be because, in this tournament, Australia are the standouts but the other four teams are very close to one another and literally anyone can win the other games on their day, that I’m absolutely sure of.” As for Malaysia, Muller witnessed first hand what they are capable of at 2009’s Champions Challenge event in Russia and is expecting a testing affair. “They still have the same players and coach so I can’t imagine they will be enormously different. “They should have beaten us the last time we played [in 2009’s]. We beat them 1-0, a game we were lucky to win, where they held sway for long periods. “They also missed qualifying for the semi-final of the Asia Cup by a minute, India scored in the last minute and ended up qualifying for the World Cup so they are tricky if you don’t have your wits about you and are not good on the day, they can take points off you.” Ireland squad for the World Cup Qualifiers: M Goode (GK, Bray), L Healy (GK, Loreto), M Harvey (Pegasus), R Flinn (Old Alex), C Sargent (Cork Harlequins), E Cregan (capt, Catholic Institute), E Clarke (Dragons, Belgium), B Cleland (Ballymoney), S McCay (Dragons, Belgium), L Jacob (UCD), A Speers (Dragons, Belgium), J O’Halloran (UCC), M Frazer (University of Maryland, USA), N Symmons (Loreto), A O’Flynn (UCC), E Smyth (Railway Union), L Colvin (Loreto), N Small (Loreto) Ireland’s World Cup Qualifier match schedule: Wednesday, April 28 – Ireland vs Malaysia, 12pm (5pm Irish time) Thursday, April 29 – Ireland vs Scotland, 12pm tip-off (5pm Irish time) Saturday, May 1 – Ireland vs Chile, 12pm tip-off (5pm Irish time) Sunday, May 2 – Ireland vs Australia, 10am tip-off (3pm Irish time) Words: Stephen Findlater