Ireland grow in confidence throughout opening FIH Hockey World Cup encounter with Australia

 

Sunday, August 16 – Wavre, Belgium: The Ireland Men’s Hockey Team suffered a 3-1defeat at the hands of Pool C top seed Australia, but a positive second half provides them with ample momentum heading into their second outing against South Africa. A trio of penalty corner goals for Australia in the first half gave them a commanding lead, but Ireland’s Ali Empey reduced the deficit, spurring Ireland to a spirited finish.

 

Ireland made a positive start to their first World Cup outing in eight years, keeping Australia at bay and enjoying passages of possession in the attacking half. A rare venture into the Irish circle for Australia ended in the first penalty corner of the outing, Joel Rintala’s dragflick finding its way into the back of the net to give Australia the lead.

The Ireland Men remained calm in their approach despite going a goal down, Matthew Nelson was brought to ground while on the break in the opening minutes of the second quarter, the foul reducing Australia to ten players. The player advantage gave ireland the opportunity to pin Australia back and play several crash balls into the circle, but Australia remained resolute.

Australia, though, soon regained their footing in the game winning a duo of penalty corners which Ireland defended well. Their fourth penalty corner of the game, however, ended in a second goal for Rintala to double the Kookaburras’ lead.

Australia would get a third before half-time, Blake Govers getting on the scoresheet after his effort on goal took a fortuitous deflection on the way through to take it away from Jaime Carr in the Irish net.

 

Despite trailing, Ireland came out into the second half with real purpose winning an early penalty corner. Lee Cole struck at goal searching for a deflection on the back post, but his effort struck an Irish foot and Australia escaped with their three-goal lead intact.

Ireland continued to force Australia into defensive duties, with the best effort of the match up to that point falling to Luke Witherow who got on the end of a Peter McKibbin crash ball across goal, but his effort was palmed wide by Ashleigh Thomas in the Australian net.

The chances kept on coming as Ireland won their second penalty corner of the tie with ten minutes to play, Mark McNellis flicked goalward in search of Lisnagarvey teammate Matthew Nelson. Nelson’s touch redirected the ball goalward where Ali Empey was on hand to volley into the net.

With momentum behind them, Ireland attacked once again. Jeremy Duncan drove down the right flank and fed Johnny McKee whose close-range flick was denied and then cleared by goalkeeper Thomas. Lee Cole came within inches of finding the net from a penalty corner in the dying minutes but was denied by the post, before a follow up penalty corner was charged down and cleared, seeing Australia secure a 3-1 win.

 

Speaking after the match, Ireland goalscorer Alistair Empey said:

“We were under no illusions that it was going to be a difficult start against Australia; they are the top ranked team in our Pool and a really good side.

We were maybe guilty in the first half of showing them a little bit too much respect, and then when they win penalty corners, they can be efficient with those if you are not careful. Suddenly we found ourselves 3-0 behind.

I think we can take some confidence from our second half performance. We showed a lot more fight, a lot more edge, we had a lot more of the ball, and we showed we can face off against teams of this quality.”

 

Speaking ahead of their second outing against South Africa, Empey said:

“Our approach won’t be any different. They are another quality side, but we have our game plan and if we can execute that to a high standard we believe we have the quality to beat a team like them. We know this is an all or nothing game after the first loss,

But hopefully that momentum in the second half and some time to refocus will allow us to hit that game with the importance that it deserves.”

 

The Ireland Men take on South Africa in their second of three Pool C outings in the FIH Hockey World Cup, with the sides facing off on Tuesday, August 18 at 17:30 Irish Time at the Belfius Hockey Arena.

Before then the IRL Women take on Spain tonight, August 16 at 19:30 Irish Time in their first match of their 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup campaign.

All of Ireland’s FIH Hockey World Cup matches are available to watch live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player in the Republic of Ireland, and on Watch.Hockey around the world.

Hockey Ireland