Irish Women's Squad announced for Hawkes Bay
March 19, 2016
Following on from a 3 match training series against Great Britain in Bisham Abbey, Graham Shaw has named his squad of 18 for the Hawkes Bay Cup in New Zealand. Shaw is confident the training series in GB was good preparation for the squad as they get set to compete against several top nations. “The 4 days spent in Bisham Abbey was perfect preparation for the Hawkes Bay Cup. It was ideal experience to play 3 high level games against top quality opposition; a team in full preparation for Rio. Overall we were happy with the level of performance, maybe a little disappointed to not get a result in one of the games but we learnt a lot about ourselves and were we sit right nowâ€.
Ireland’s Women’s hockey team will travel to New Zealand to play in the highly competitive Hawkes Bay Cup from April 2nd-10th. The tournament will play host to 8 teams, 5 of whom are ranked in the top 10 in world hockey. The tournament offers vital experience for Graham Shaw’s young squad as they will come up against several sides they may otherwise not meet throughout the year.
The Green Army are drawn in Pool B alongside host New Zealand, China and India while Pool A is comprised of Australia, Korea, Japan and Canada.
Ireland’s first match sees them pitted against China, the team who dealt them the cruellest of blows at World League 3 in Valencia last June; that penalty shoot-out will long live in the memory of anyone who witnessed it but Shaw is determined his team have learnt from that experience “There will obviously be emotion involved in that opening match but we will be 100% focused on each opponent and take one match at a time. There were plenty of lessons to take from Valencia and the China match in particular, I’m confident we’ve matured as a squad and will be as prepared as possible when we face the world number 5â€. True to tournament hockey, the Green Army will play again the following day against India, their closest ranked opponent before finishing up the pool games against world number 4 New Zealand.
Shaw continued “We are delighted with the invitation to Hawkes Bay as the only European nation. This is a fantastic opportunity for the Green Army as the level of opposition we will face will provide a real test and give us a great insight to where we sit with the top nations in World Hockeyâ€.
Squad for Hawkes Bay Tournament
1. Ayeisha McFerran (GK)
2. Pamela Smithwick (GK)
3. Yvonne O Byrne
4. Shirley McCay
5. Cliodhna Sargent (VC)
6. Hannah Mathews
7. Lena Tice
8. Zoe Wilson
9. Megan Frazer (C)
10. Gill Pinder
11. Katie Mullan
12. Chloe Watkins
13. Nicci Daly
14. Nikki Evans
15. Anna O Flanagan
16. Emily Beatty
17. Naomi Carroll
18. Deirdre Duke
World Rankings:
Australia 3
New Zealand 4
China 5
Korea 9
Japan 10
India 13
Ireland 15
Canada 19
