Women's team announced for World League Semi Finals
June 21, 2017
Graham Shaw, head coach of the Irish women’s hockey team, has today announced his squad of 18 players for the World League Semi Finals in Johannesburg (8-23 July).
World League offers the side the chance to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in London, in doing so they would become the first Irish women’s team to play at a world cup since the 2002 Perth tournament. Qualification for the 2018 event has been expanded to 16 teams, giving the Green Army a very tangible opportunity of returning Ireland to the World Cup stage. The 16 teams will be comprised of England as World Cup hosts, 5 Continental champions and 10 highest placed National Associations in the Semi-Finals of World League (Johannesburg & Belgium) not qualified under the first 2 criteria.
There are no new faces in the side that combines a mixture of stalwarts along with several players who have yet to play in a World League Semi-Final. Shaw’s side have had an eye-watering list of fixtures in preparation playing against 5 of the world’s top ten teams in recent months, most recently beating Olympic bronze medallists Germany.
The Green Army have a tough opening fixture of World League against world number 11 Japan, a ranking that perhaps doesn't reflect their ability as they beat Australia, New Zealand and USA in the Hawkes Bay Cup with those 3 opponents sitting 4th, 5th and 6th in the world respectively. The girls in green will then face world number 7 Germany, and Poland before a 3-day break which then sees them round out their pool games against world number 2 England, a side that will surely have a whole host of the Olympic champions Great Britain squad.
Speaking about the squad, Shaw said “Squad was selection was very tight with some difficult decisions. This is testament to how hard this group has worked and how we have developed over the past few months.
We’re very excited to get started at World League in South Africa. We will take every game as it comes during the tournament. Our aim is to finish in the top four in our pool which will put us in the Quarter Finals. Each team will pose a different threat and we will be as prepared as possible for each”.
Squad:
Grace O’Flanagan- Railway Union
Hannah Matthews- Loreto
Zoe Wilson- Harvesthuder
Shirley McCay- Ulster Elks
Elizabeth Colvin- Loreto
Elena Tice- UCD
Chloe Watkins- Hermes/Monkstown
Katie Mullan- UCD
Gillian Pinder- UCD
Anna O’Flanagan- Hermes/Monkstown
Sinead Loughran- Hermes/Monkstown
Nicola Evans- Hermes/Monkstown
Nicola Daly- Muckross
Deirdre Duke- UCD
Emily Beatty- KHC Dragons
Roisin Upton- Cork Harlequins
Yvonne OByrne- Cork Harlequins
Ayeisha McFerran- Univeristy of Louisville
Women:
| Pool A | Pool B |
| England | Argentina |
| Germany | USA |
| Japan | South Africa |
| Ireland | India |
| Poland | Chile |
| DATE | INFO | TIME* | TEAMS |
| July 8, 2017 | Pool A | 12:00 | JPN - IRL |
| | Pool A | 14:00 | GER - POL |
| | Pool B | 16:00 | USA - CHI |
| | Pool B | 18:00 | RSA - IND |
| July 10, 2017 | Pool B | 12:00 | ARG - CHI |
| | Pool A | 14:00 | GER - IRL |
| | Pool A | 16:00 | ENG - POL |
| | Pool B | 18:00 | USA - IND |
| July 12, 2017 | Pool B | 12:00 | IND - CHI |
| | Pool A | 14:00 | IRL - POL |
| | Pool A | 16:00 | JPN - ENG |
| | Pool B | 18:00 | RSA - ARG |
| July 14, 2017 | Pool A | 12:00 | POL - JPN |
| | Pool B | 14:00 | CHI - RSA |
| | Pool B | 16:00 | USA - ARG |
| | Pool A | 18:00 | GER - ENG |
| July 16, 2017 | Pool A | 12:00 | JPN - GER |
| | Pool A | 14:00 | ENG - IRL |
| | Pool B | 16:00 | RSA - USA |
| | Pool B | 18:00 | ARG - IND |
| July 18, 2017 | QF | 11:15 | - |
| | QF | 13:30 | - |
| | QF | 15:45 | - |
| | QF | 18:00 | - |
| July 20, 2017 | 9th/10th Place | 10:00 | - |
| | 5 / 8 Place | 12:15 | - |
| | 5 / 8 Place | 14:30 | - |
| | Semi Final | 16:45 | - |
| | Semi Final | 19:00 | - |
| July 22, 2017 | 7th/8th Place | 11:15 | - |
| | 5th/6th Place | 13:30 | - |
| July 23, 2017 | 3rd/4th Place | 11:00 | - |
| | Final | 15:30 | - |
Source - Hockey Ireland
