IRELAND LOST 5-1 today in India against the Netherlands, in their first ever FIH Pro League game.
Ireland defended well early on in the game in Bhubaneswar, but in the 12th minute when Tjep Hoedermans converted from a penalty corner to give the lead to the Netherlands, the number one ranked side in the world.
The Dutch increased their advantage on 21 minutes through Jorrit Croon, but Ireland improved in the second quarter. Pirmin Blaak denied Jeremy Duncan and Conor Empey had a shot come back off the post in the 29th minute.
It was 2-0 at half-time before the Dutch increased their lead early in the third quarter, Jamie Carr fouled Jip Janssen who converted the resultant penalty stroke.
Within 60 seconds Sean Murray burst into the Dutch semi-circle and was fouled by Jorrit Croon. Croon sat out the next ten minutes on a yellow card and the Dutch were further reduced to 9 players for two minutes when Steijn Van Heijningen was green carded.
The Irish appealed the original award of a free hit to the wideo umpire. He upheld the appeal and awarded a penalty stroke to Ireland which was converted by Lee Cole in the 36th minute. This made history being Ireland’s first ever goal in the FIH Pro League.
Any hopes of an Ireland comeback were thwarted by several saves by Pirmin Blaak and then by two goals within a minute for the Dutch, Jip Janssen converted a penalty corner and Steijn Van Heijningen’s effort hit off an Irish defender on its way to the net to seal a comfortable win for the Dutch.
Ireland are back in action on Tuesday 13 February against Australia.
“I didn’t think it was a 5-1 game,” said Ireland head coach Mark Tumilty afterwards.
“If we could have gotten a second goal in the third quarter, it would have been a different result. Pleased with our first half showing. We produced some very good hockey at times. Going forward at times too. Probably just a few individual errors cost us goals.
“Teams at this level punish errors ruthlessly. Our deep defence was good at times as it had been in Valencia recently. I thought Sean Murray was outstanding in the game today. On Tuesday we will face Australia, and this will be another challenge for us. We will need to fix a few things from today that we could do a bit better on.”
Ireland: Jamie Carr (GK), Luke Madeley, Tim Cross, John McKee, Daragh Walsh, Kevin O’Dea, Shane O’Donoghue , Sean Murray (C), Michael Robson, Lee Cole, Conor Empey.
Subs: BenJohnson (4 mins), Luke Witherow (5 mins) Jeremy Duncan (5 mins), Nicholas Page (5 mins), Peter McKibbin (7 mins), Peter Brown (7 mins)
