LISTEN: Limerick’s Roisín Upton part of Irish team for Euro Hockey Championships

August 12, 2017 / Raffaele Rocca /

Limerick’s Roisín Upton part of Irish team for European Hockey Championships.

Former Crescent College student Roisín Upton will compete as part of the Irish team competing at the Rabo Euro Hockey Championships in Amsterdam which begin next weekend.

Upton who plies her trade with Cork Harlequins was part of the Irish side that finished 7th at the World League semi finals in Johannesburg earlier in the Summer. Graham Shaw’s side needed a 5th place finish to guarantee a World Cup spot but fell just short.

Speaking to Sporting Limerick, Upton says the team have had a good training camp and are looking forward to the Euros and doing all they can to make World Cup qualification.

“We had a really good training camp last weekend up in Dublin for three days over the bank holiday weekend and we continued that this week with some running and gym work at our regional centres.”

Despite that disappointment Ireland can still qualify for the World Cup depending on some other results going in their favour with extra places to be awarded via World League placings.

Ireland are in Pool B with Scotland, Germany and England.

Ireland’s Rabo Eurohockey Championships fixtures:

Ireland vs England, Saturday, August 19 at 1:45pm Irish time.

Ireland vs Scotland, Sunday, August 20 at 12:15pm Irish time.

Ireland vs Germany, Tuesday, August 22 at 1:45pm Irish time.

Knockout & classification matches take place between August 24 & 26.

With the squad to set to depart for Holland on Sunday, Upton says there is a lot of competition in the Pool.

“There is a lot of competition in the pool and we will be looking to finish in the top two to qualify for the semi finals.”

Pool A sees Spain, Holland, Czech Republic and Belgium.

 

Ireland had some solid performances in Johannesburg and Upton says that the panel have gained confidence from their South African exploits.

“We don’t really fear anyone, we had some really good performances in Johannesburg and we are just going to target each game as the come, take one game at a time and the goal will be to get to that semi final spot.”

You can listen to Roisín’s chat with Sporting Limerick in full in the link below. 

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Raffaele Rocca