Both Senior Irish hockey teams are out in Manchester at present, ready to compete in the Euro Hockey Nations Championship. A top three finish in the tournament would give them an automatic spot in the Olympics, Beijing 2008.
A top three finish is a big ask for any team in the Europeans when you look at the quality of countries competing. Both Irish teams face hockey giants The Netherlands during the pool stages.
The Irish women are first out the blocks when they take on England this Saturday, followed by the Netherlands on Monday and Italy on Tuesday before the cross over matches towards the end of the week. The Irish men start their campaign this Sunday 19th against world number three ranked team Spain, followed by The Netherlands on Tuesday and France on Wednesday.
Dave Passmore the Senior Men’s Coach has had to deal with a few sudden injuries close to the tournament, however, depth in his squad has allowed him to adapt the team. He commented on Friday: ‘Obviously the injury to Tim Lewis which followed the loss of Jason Black (for personal reasons) was far from ideal as they both play important roles in attacking and defensive corners as well as being backline players.
‘However, we have developed a larger squad to overcome these situations and have used most of our players in a variety of positions.
‘Who plays in the back line will depend on the opposition, but we have several options’.
Despite the injuries for Passmore and some tough games in the opening stages of the tournament Passmore is in a positive mind set. He continued: ‘Although our program has gone very well for the majority and I feel the team are prepared it is difficult to predict how things will go.
‘We’ll take each game as it comes knowing that every match carries more importance as the tournament progresses. The new structure means every goal and every game counts.’
