Ireland defeat France 2-0 in INSEP Five-Nation tournament in Paris – Hockey Update
The Irishmen scored yet another victory defeating the hosts France 2-0 in the Five-Nation INSEP Hockey Challenge tournament being played in Paris. With this victory the Irishmen have almost claimed the INSEP Challenge Trophy but they will have to wait the
result of the match between South Korea and Argentina.
Argentina still has a chance to catch Ireland if they manage to defeat the South Koreans because they are at the second spot on points table with six points after Ireland who leads the table with nine points. The victory over South Korea will put Argentina
at level with Ireland on points table.
The Irishmen clearly dominated the game in spite of some good defence by their French counterparts and scored one goal each in both of the halves whereas their opponents remained goalless throughout the match.
Ireland started the match on a fast tempo creating some good chances in the early minutes of the first half but they remained unlucky on a few occasions as their opponents showed some brilliant efforts in defence. Ireland won their first penalty corner in
the 30th minute but Eugene Magee missed the goalpost by a narrow distance. However, moments before the interval whistle, the Irishmen were awarded another penalty corner in the last minute as John Jermyn converted it into the opening goal and put
Ireland ahead by one score.
The second half started as Ireland created early chances into the play when the youngster Ian Sloan displayed a wonderful running effort in the 45th minute but Mitch Darling missed the spot by inches after collecting the ball from Sloan. However,
the Irish athletes continued consistently to penetrate into the French circle and their efforts were rewarded in the 50th minute when John Jackson scored an astonishing goal by a glorious individual effort and doubled the Irish lead, 20 minutes
still into the play.
The goal was Jackson’s first ever international score. Ireland continued their efforts but the Irish goal-keeper, David Fitzgerald looked like an iron man throughout the match as he saved a number of good shots, especially the penalty corner saved in the
60th minute was the best effort by David. In the last five minutes the Irish team was limited to 10 players as Mitch Darling was sent out as he was shown a yellow card. However, the match ended at 2-0 to Ireland.
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