Ireland’s U16 teams romped to Tri-Nations victories in sun-drenched Wrexham this weekend with a number of Munster players getting on the scoresheet.
The boys – for whom SFH’s Andy Gray was assistant coach – began with a 6-3 friendly win over a Lancashire County Selection, with Cork Harlequins man Julian Dale among the goals.
That ultimately proved to be their toughest game as they went on to put a total of 13 goals past Scotland and Wales.
The Scots, playing a long-ball game, did offer some first-half resistance by staying in it at 3-2 down, but couldn’t live with Ireland’s firepower as an Aaron Martin hat-trick, two from David Nolan and a Freddie Morris strike did the damage.
The win was even more impressive given Ireland spent 29 minutes with 10 men after consistently falling foul of one of the umpires.
It got even better for the boys in green on Sunday as they dispatched Wales with the minimum of fuss on a 7-0 scoreline, seven different players getting among the goals.
The girls, who had Munster’s Kym Daly among their coaching team, had things a bit tougher initially as a strike from Lena Tice – who became the second youngest player ever to win a one-day international cricket cap when she lined out for Ireland aged 13 in 2011 – helped them to a 1-1 draw against Scotland.
They went on to take overall glory in memorable fashion when defeating the hosts 5-0, with Munster players Michelle Barry and Kate Crotty among the goalscorers.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s U18 boys plans for their European Championships II in Gasawa, Poland have been disrupted following the last minute withdrawal of Belarus.
It has reduced the competition to six nations, meaning the original plan of playing in two groups before feeding into semi-finals and classification games has now been replaced by a one-team round-robin pool.
Graham Shaw’s side will, as a result, play their first game today against Italy rather than lining out on Tuesday as originally scheduled.
Assistant coach Gareth Evans explained: “The late change of plans has big time affected us. If we had known beforehand we were playing on Monday, we would have gotten a Saturday flight to Poland [rather than Sunday].
“We had a training session organised for Monday, we now play instead. It has very much upset our plans.”
The target remains the same, tough, with the side aiming to win the tournament but promotion for finishing in the top two and earning promotion is the “worst case scenario”.
In the new format, after they meet Italy, Wales are next on the list on Tuesday before playing Switzerland (Thursday), Poland (Saturday) and Russia (Sunday).
EuroHockey Youth Nations U-18 Championships II, Gasawa, Poland: Today: Ireland vs Italy, 12pm; Tomorrow: Ireland vs Wales, 12pm; Thursday: Ireland vs Switzerland, 2pm; Saturday: Ireland vs Poland, 3pm; Sunday: Ireland vs Russia, 12.30pm.
Ireland U18 Boys: G Adams (Methody/Lisnagarvey), J Carr (St Andrews/Monkstown), D Kane (St Kilian’s DSD/Pembroke), L Madeley (Wesley/Three Rock Rovers), L Cole (St Andrew’s/Monkstown), J McKee (Banbridge Academy/Banbridge), M Robson (Sullivan Upper/Annadale), A Burns (Midleton/Cork C of I), B Campbell (St Andrews/YMCA), K Mullins (Mount Temple/Clontarf), G Wilkinson (Ashton/Cork C of I), S O’Connor (St Benildus/Glenanne), H Morris (St Columbas/Three Rock Rovers), B Cosgrove (Banbridge Academy/Banbridge), S Wolfe (Ashton/Cork C of I), N Byrne (St Colmcilles/Glenanne), J Lorimer (RBAI/Lisnagarvey); M Loughrey (St Andrews/Pembroke).
>U16 Tri-Nations, Wrexham
That ultimately proved to be their toughest game as they went on to put a total of 13 goals past Scotland and Wales.
The Scots, playing a long-ball game, did offer some first-half resistance by staying in it at 3-2 down, but couldn’t live with Ireland’s firepower as an Aaron Martin hat-trick, two from David Nolan and a Freddie Morris strike did the damage.
The win was even more impressive given Ireland spent 29 minutes with 10 men after consistently falling foul of one of the umpires.
It got even better for the boys in green on Sunday as they dispatched Wales with the minimum of fuss on a 7-0 scoreline, seven different players getting among the goals.
The girls, who had Munster’s Kym Daly among their coaching team, had things a bit tougher initially as a strike from Lena Tice – who became the second youngest player ever to win a one-day international cricket cap when she lined out for Ireland aged 13 in 2011 – helped them to a 1-1 draw against Scotland.
They went on to take overall glory in memorable fashion when defeating the hosts 5-0, with Munster players Michelle Barry and Kate Crotty among the goalscorers.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s U18 boys plans for their European Championships II in Gasawa, Poland have been disrupted following the last minute withdrawal of Belarus.
It has reduced the competition to six nations, meaning the original plan of playing in two groups before feeding into semi-finals and classification games has now been replaced by a one-team round-robin pool.
Graham Shaw’s side will, as a result, play their first game today against Italy rather than lining out on Tuesday as originally scheduled.
Assistant coach Gareth Evans explained: “The late change of plans has big time affected us. If we had known beforehand we were playing on Monday, we would have gotten a Saturday flight to Poland [rather than Sunday].
“We had a training session organised for Monday, we now play instead. It has very much upset our plans.”
The target remains the same, tough, with the side aiming to win the tournament but promotion for finishing in the top two and earning promotion is the “worst case scenario”.
In the new format, after they meet Italy, Wales are next on the list on Tuesday before playing Switzerland (Thursday), Poland (Saturday) and Russia (Sunday).
EuroHockey Youth Nations U-18 Championships II, Gasawa, Poland: Today: Ireland vs Italy, 12pm; Tomorrow: Ireland vs Wales, 12pm; Thursday: Ireland vs Switzerland, 2pm; Saturday: Ireland vs Poland, 3pm; Sunday: Ireland vs Russia, 12.30pm.
Ireland U18 Boys: G Adams (Methody/Lisnagarvey), J Carr (St Andrews/Monkstown), D Kane (St Kilian’s DSD/Pembroke), L Madeley (Wesley/Three Rock Rovers), L Cole (St Andrew’s/Monkstown), J McKee (Banbridge Academy/Banbridge), M Robson (Sullivan Upper/Annadale), A Burns (Midleton/Cork C of I), B Campbell (St Andrews/YMCA), K Mullins (Mount Temple/Clontarf), G Wilkinson (Ashton/Cork C of I), S O’Connor (St Benildus/Glenanne), H Morris (St Columbas/Three Rock Rovers), B Cosgrove (Banbridge Academy/Banbridge), S Wolfe (Ashton/Cork C of I), N Byrne (St Colmcilles/Glenanne), J Lorimer (RBAI/Lisnagarvey); M Loughrey (St Andrews/Pembroke).
>U16 Tri-Nations, WrexhamGirls: Ireland 1 (L Tice) Scotland 1; Wales 0 Ireland 5 (S Campbell, K Edgar, K Crotty, M Barry, K Larmour).
Boys: Ireland 6 (A Martin 3, D Nolan 2, F Morris) Scotland 2; Wales 0 Ireland 7 (D Nolan, S Murray, K O’Hare, A Martin, D Walsh, J Mullins, R Getty).
>Girls U18 Friendly, Lilleshall: Ireland 1 (Sarah Hawkshaw) England 1.