Wednesday 1st of June 2011
The Irish Hockey Association today announced an exciting programme of international matches and tournaments including many top teams coming to play in Ireland. Both teams will pitch themselves against the current World Champions in a grueling program.
Commenting on the matches High Performance Director commented ‘with the need to prepare our national teams fully despite the challenging economic times we are delighted with the schedule of matches and tournaments that our teams have. I have no doubt that these will best place both squads for the Europeans in August. We are indebted to a fantastically committed set of management teams at all levels of the game who will work with the teams throughout. Let’s hope the hockey public come out in force, home and away and get behind the great groups of players we have.’
Both teams will compete in their respective Celtic Cups prior to the combined ESB Electric Ireland FIH Champions Challenge I and UCD 4 Nations Event hosted in Belfield. The men have little turn around time before heading to Paris for their own Champions Challenge event in Lille. The most recent addition is an exciting trip back to France to play in a Five Nations which includes the world’s number 1 ranked team, Australia and also Korea (ranked 6th) who Ireland have not played for some years. The men finish off their final preparation with a two match series against Argentina at UCD.
Men’s Coach Paul Revington is pleased with the schedule of matches commenting that ‘We enter a very busy and exciting 3-month period for Ireland Men’s Hockey with the prospect of tough opposition in every event. The summer will provide a great challenge to our Ireland players and the number of quality games will also test the strength of a larger squad of players whole will be used to meet the challenges head-on’.
The women will continue to work together on the Central Training Program and limit their match play somewhat but do have the exciting visit of World Champions Argentina in August. The team will play two matches at UCD where the Irish public will see the sparkling skills of the mercurial Luciana Aymar.
Gene Muller women’s coach enthused ‘it is an exciting time for our program. After several months of hard technical, physical and tactical work we will soon be able to see the impact to date of the CPP program on the development of the group. The players and staff are looking forward to the challenges ahead and pitting ourselves, at home against so many quality teams ’.
Men’s Program:
Date Match Event Venue Time
Celtic Cup – Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, Wales
Fri 17 June Ireland v Scotland Cardiff 16:00
Sat 18 June Ireland v France Cardiff 14:00
Sun 19 June Ireland v Wales Cardiff 13:15
Fri 17 June Match v Pakistan UCD 20:30
UCD Men’s 4 Nations – UCD 20th – 25th June
Mon 20 June Ireland v China UCD 20:00
Weds 22 June Ireland v France UCD 20:00
Fri 24 June Ireland v Pakistan UCD 20:00
Sat 25 June Playoffs 3/4th and 1/2nd UCD 18:00/20:00
FIH Men’s Champions Challenge II – Lille, France
Sat 2 July Ireland v Scotland Lille 15:00
Sun 3 July Ireland v France Lille 17:00
Tues 5 July Ireland v Russia Lille 15:00
Thur 7 July Quarter Finals Lille TBC
Sat 9 July Semis and 5-8th Lille TBC
Sun 10 July Final Classification Matches Lille TBC
INSEP 5 Nations, Paris, France
Sat 6 Aug Ireland v Argentina UCD 15:00
Sun 7 Aug Ireland v Argentina UCD 15:00
European Nations Cup – Monchengladbach, Germany – 20-28th August
Sun 21 Aug Ireland v England Monchengladbach 10:00
Mon 22 Aug Ireland v France Monchengladbach 13:00
Weds 24 Aug Ireland v Netherlands Monchengladbach 18:00
Fri 26 Aug Crossovers Monchengladbach TBC
Sun 28 Aug Crossovers Monchengladbach TBC
PLEASE NOTE ALL MATCH TIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
Women’s Program:
Date Match Event Venue Time
Women’s Celtic Cup Largs, Scotland, 3-5 June
Sat 4 June Ireland v Wales Largs 14:00
Sun 5 June Ireland v Scotland Largs 14:00
Mon 6 June Ireland v Scot (International) Largs 13:00
ESB Electric Ireland Champions Challenge I – UCD, Dublin
Sat 18 June Ireland v India UCD 15:00
Sun 19 June Ireland v Azerbaijan UCD 15:30
Tues 21 June Ireland v Spain UCD 18:30
Thurs 23 June Quarter finals UCD TBC
Fri 24 June 5-8th Classification UCD 15:30 / 18:00
Sat 25 June Semi Finals UCD 13:00 / 15:30
Sun 26 June Final Classification Matches UCD
Fri 12 Aug Ireland v Argentina UCD 18:00
Sun 14 Aug Ireland v Argentina UCD 18:00
European Nations Cup – Monchengladbach, Germany – 20-28th August
Sat 20 Aug Ireland v Germany Monchengladbach 16:00
Sun 21 Aug Ireland v Belgium Monchengladbach 20:00
Tues 23 Aug Ireland v England Monchengladbach 13:00
Thurs 25 Aug Crossovers Monchengladbach TBC
Sat 27 Aug Crossovers Monchengladbach TBC
PLEASE NOTE ALL MATCH TIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
The U18 Girls will Play Ireland A and France in their preparation for the U18 Europeans and the U18 Boys will also pitch themselves against their Ireland A counterparts.
U18 Boys and Girls European Youth Championships – Utrecht, Netherlands: 12-17 July
Tues 12 July Girls: Ireland v Netherlands Utrecht 16:05
Tues 12 July Boys: Ireland v Netherlands Utrecht 18:05
Weds 13 July Girls: Ireland v Scotland Utrecht 16:00
Weds 13 July Boys: Ireland v Russia Utrecht 18:00
Thurs 14 July Boys: Ireland v Germany Utrecht 16:00
Thurs 14 July Girls: Ireland v Belgium Utrecht 18:00
Sat 16 July Boys / Girls Crossovers
Sun 17 July Boys / Girls Crossovers
U16 Boys Tri-Nations Tournament (Ireland – France – Wales) 4-7 July
The tournament will be played in INSEP, Paris with two matches against each nation.
The U16 Girls will visit Netherlands/Germany in the period 18-21st August
ENDS
Source: Irish Hockey