LAST UPDATE | 21 Oct 2023
IRELAND CRUISED TO a comfortable win against Scotland in today’s hurling/shinty hybrid spectacle today in Pairc Esler, Newry, the final score 0-22 to 2-8.
Ireland had a mixture of players from different levels of the game, from Clare’s Peter Duggan and Cork’s Ger Millerick, alongside the likes of Niall Arthur of Monaghan and Fermanagh starlet Luca McCusker.
Managed by Cork’s Kieran Kingston and Antrim’s Terence ‘Sambo’ McNaughton and captained by Neil McManus, the rules of the game guarded against the players being able to take the sliotar into the hand.
This made for a wildly entertaining game with the Scotland player’s sticks able to propel the ball much further off the ground. By way of contrast, the lack of ground hurling in the Irish game was painfully apparent, with the modern player using shorter hurls that while necessary for the contemporary game of hurling, do not have the same leverage as the longer sticks.
However, despite their two goals it became apparent that the Ireland players were of a higher conditioning and they were able to score at will in the last quarter, with McManus converting a number of frees.
