WATCH: Roisín Upton on her Hockey World Cup ambitions and “being an underdog”.

Ireland travel to England later this month to compete in the 14th edition of the Women’s Hockey World Cup. The event will take place in London from the 21st of July to the 5th of August. The 2014 competition saw host nation the Netherlands come out on top. Ireland enter the competition as rank outsiders due to the tough nature of their pool but Limerick women Roisin Upton is excited ahead of the competition.

Upton, who first played hockey during her first year at Crescent College, won numerous titles during her time in CCC including two Munster Junior and two Munster Senior Cups. Her talent was noted across the pond and she was offered a scholarship the University of Connecticut where she won a brace of National titles with her college.

Upton is one of the marquee names on this Irish side who are hoping to upset the odds and showcase their talents at the prestigious event.

“Every Irish sportsperson takes pride in being Irish and being an underdog. We’ll go there with nothing to lose. We have England in our pool who are second in the world. The USA are seventh and India are tenth. We ourselves are sixteenth so there is nothing to lose.”

“The goal will be to get out of the pool. It’s a really tough pool. Target each game, they are three different styles of hockey so to get out of the pool would be massive and from there we are going to treat each game as a final.”

Ireland take on USA in their pool opener with India next up and England in their final game of the pool stages. Ireland will take confidence from last year’s World League Semi Final tournament in South Africa when they ran some major teams very close including a last gasp defeat to England.

We spoke to Upton ahead of the tournament to see how preparations have been. See the full interview below on our YouTube channel.