Ireland struggle in heat during Intercontinental Cup opener

Ireland's opening match in the CPISRA Intercontinental Cup was expected to be the toughest they would encounter in the entire tournament and so it proved, as the World and Paralympic champions proved much too strong at the Jaume Tubau Stadium in the Catalan town of Sant Cugat del Valles.

Eduard Ramonov was chief tormentor, bagging a hat-trick. Two of those goals came in the first half, after Alexander Kuligin opened the scoring for the tournament favourites.

Despite fielding an inexperienced side, Ireland were extremely competitive in the opening period and had they been more clinical in their finishing, might have still been in contention at half time.

Instead they trailed 3-0 and a final quarter burst that produced goals for Alexey Chesmin, Viacheslav Larionov and Ramonov's third, two minutes from time, compounded the agony.

"The one thing that killed us was lack of experience" said manager, Paul Cassin. "If we had taken even one of those we might have done better.

"The heat was a huge factor at the time of day we were playing (11.30am local time) but I wouldn't be using it as an excuse either.

"You could see why Russia are the World and Paralympic champions. They are so skilful but you can also see the strength and conditioning work they have done.

It's paying off."

Venezuela are next up for Ireland on Tuesday, with England completing the Group B action on Thursday.

Victories in those two games will secure a place in the quarter-finals and with that, automatic qualification to the World Championships.