Ireland Women's national team are about to begin their FIH Nations Cup campaign in Terrassa, Spain starting on June 3rd. Interim head coach Facu Quirorga's 18 strong squad are ready for action having played warm up matches against Italy, Belgium and India in Antwerp earlier in May before flying to Spain on Monday 27th May ahead of the Nations Cup. They played further warm up matches against Chile and New Zealand in final preparations for their opening fixture against Spain on Monday, June 3rd at 18:30 Irish time.
The participating nations in the competition are: Spain, Japan, Korea, Ireland, Chile, Canada, Italy and New Zealand .
Korea, Italy, Spain and Ireland have been drawn in Group A. Each of these opponents will be difficult and present a strong challenge for the Ireland team.
No matter the outcome Ireland are guaranteed to play in five FIH Nations Cup games. Following the group stages all teams play an additional two placement matches to determine the final rankings in the competition.
These placement matches begin on Saturday morning with the 3rd in Pool A playing 4th in Pool B and vice versa. The winners will play in Sunday’s 5th/6th place playoff while the losers will compete in the 7th/8th place playoff match.
Similarly 1st and 2nd in each pool will progress onto the semi-finals where the losers will go on to play in Sunday’s 3rd/4th place playoff at 16:00 Irish time, while the winners will book their place in the Final at 18:30 Irish time on Sunday, June 9th.
The winners of the FIH Nations Cup will be invited to participate in the FIH PRO League for Women in place of the team that finishes 9th in this current campaign. This competition also counts towards ranking points and will have a bearing on Ireland's World Rankings which again could have a bearing on how difficult a draw might be for the team in future qualification competitions at European and World Cup level in the coming months and years.
Ireland’s fixtures:
Monday, June 3rd - IRELAND V SPAIN - 18:30 Irish time.
Tuesday June 4th - IRELAND V ITALY - 16:00 Irish time.
Thursday June 6th - IRELAND V KOREA - 16:00 Irish time.
