Wednesday, May 27: The Ireland Women’s & Men’s Hockey Team have a busy summer ahead as both build towards August’s FIH Hockey World Cup, with the Women closing out their maiden FIH Hockey Pro League Campaign, while the Men travel to South Africa for the FIH Hockey Nations Cup.
Building on March’s exceptional World Cup qualification campaign will be top of Gareth Grundie and Mark Tumilty’s priority lists as the Women’s and Men’s squad look to gain momentum this summer ahead of August’s FIH Hockey World Cup campaign.
In June, the Ireland Men’s Team travel to the familiar surroundings of South Africa for the 2026 FIH Hockey Nations Cup as they look to better their 2022 silver medal and secure a return to the FIH Hockey Pro League, the topflight annual competition featuring the World’s top nine international sides. Tumilty’s side have been drawn in Pool B of the competition alongside hosts South Africa (#13), recent rivals France (#10), and tournament debutants USA (#26).
Ireland enter the competition as the top ranked side, sitting ninth in the world after their sensational unbeaten campaign in Santiago’s FIH Hockey World Cup Qualifiers in March where they topped their pool before dispatching Wales to secure qualification, and came from behind to beat France in the final.
The side begin the campaign against USA on Thursday, June 11 followed by a grudge match against France 48 hours later, on Saturday, June 13. They close out their pool stage against South Africa, with a top 2 finish enough to see the side progress to the Semi-Finals on Friday, June 19.
Also in June, the Ireland Women’s team close out their maiden FIH Hockey Pro League campaign with two European stages as they travel to the Netherlands and Germany in pursuit of topflight survival.
Despite sitting five world ranking places below the next nearest side in the competition, Ireland have had a superb campaign to date. Beginning on home soil, the side came out the wrong side of two enthralling encounters with World #3 Belgium but secured a bonus point draw thanks to some Elizabeth Murphy shootout heroics in one of their two ties against England to get themselves on the board.
Australia’s Tasmania Hockey Centre in Hobart was the side’s next frontier where once again they proved their capability to mix it with the best in the world. A tough opening encounter against Argentina was quickly rectified as Ireland secured another point after a scoreless draw against Australia. A much-improved 2-1 defeat to the World #2 Las Leonas preceded a 4-1 hammering of the hosts as Ireland soared to a historic first ever win over Australia.
Ireland next travel to one of the world’s hockey hotbeds, Rotterdam, as they enter their penultimate FIH Hockey Pro League stage. Back-to-back encounters with hosts and World #1 the Netherlands on June 13 & 14 will prove Ireland’s toughest test of the season, before they take on a rival of recent years, Spain (#5) on June 17 & 18.
The side then trade Rotterdam for Berlin where they close out their 2025/26 FIH Hockey Pro League campaign against Germany and China. Ireland’s meeting with China on June 24 & 27 will be their first meeting with the reigning Asia Cup champions and World #4 since 2022.
Prior to that though, Ireland will face the hosts on June 23 & 26 in a tie that is much more familiar. The sides last faced off at the 2025 EuroHockey Championship in Monchengladbach which ended in a 0-0 draw. Ireland will look to go one better than that at the Ernst Reuter Sportfield as they look to secure 3 points against the Germans for the first time since 2018.
June 11 – 15:45 Irish Time – Ireland vs United States of America
June 13 – 13:45 Irish Time – Ireland vs France
June 16 – 18:00 Irish Time – Ireland vs South Africa
June 19 & 20 – Crossover Matches
June 13 – 12:30 Irish Time – Ireland vs Netherlands
June 14 – 12:30 Irish Time – Ireland vs Netherlands
June 17 – 16:00 Irish Time – Ireland vs Spain
June 18 – 16:00 Irish Time – Ireland vs Spain
June 23 – 19:30 Irish Time – Ireland vs Germany
June 24 – 16:30 Irish Time – Ireland vs China
June 26 – 19:30 Irish Time – Ireland vs Germany
June 27 – 15:30 Irish Time – Ireland vs China
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