Ireland Fall to Olympic Champions in Investec London Cup

Ireland fell to the reigning Olympic Champions, the Netherlands 5-0 today, in their last pool match in the Investec Cup being held in London. The first half was typically high tempo affair and the Irish matched the current World No.1's with a disciplined defensive display and some excellent work by keeper Gray. In attack Watkins and Daly interplayed well to keep the Dutch on alert, It was 33 minutes before the Dutch breached the Irish defence with a well taken reverse stick strike from Jonker of a rebounded save fron Gray.

The Dutch established their dominance early in the second half with goals from Jonker on 40minutes and Agliotti ten minutes later. Ireland pressed for a goal with their best opportunity a drag flick from O'Flynn that forced an excellent save from the Dutch keeper. As the game neared its conclusion the Dutch pressure told with goals from Hoog on 65minutes and Jonker completing her hat trick on 67 minutes.

Coach Pritchard summed up the performance saying "We competed well for good periods especially in the first half but our conditioning understandably did not match the Dutch and that lefd to lapses in concentration. There were some pleasing performances especially from some of our younger players."