When Ireland was announced as host of the Champion’s Challenge in November, June seemed a long long time away. Alas, after 24 games, 144 players, almost 100 goals, (Oh, and not to mention a world record thrown in), not one scoreless game, a few dozen cards, hundreds of volunteers and hundreds more supporters, UCD these days is a shadow of its former self. The tournament is over and the teams have gone home, some licking their wounds and others shining their silverware. But for everyone involved, it was an unforgettable display of world-class hockey right on our doorstep. Not something that happens every day!
Before the start of the tournament, I can honestly say I didn’t know what to expect, and I don’t think the other countries had any idea either. It’s 8 months since the CPP began, and having only played 6 capped matches pre Champions Challenge, it was difficult to put a marker on how far our intense training had brought us. Given this, we looked forward to the tournament with much excitement. We looked sharp in training, were given plenty of time to rest and recover, everyone was raring to go. Then we played South Africa in a warm-up game…
It would be pretty fair to say that not one of us turned up to this match. We lost the game 3-0, looked second to the ball, lethargic and not our useful committed selves. It was a serious wake-up, and in hindsight turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We went into our first game against India undoubtedly licking our wounds. Turns out we play some of our best hockey like caged animals, and we couldn’t believe it when we came of the pitch having won the game 2-1. This was followed by another impressive victory over Azerbaijan, and we went into our third pool game against Spain guaranteed a top 2 finish. Games in the other pool, however, didn’t really go our way. Scotland played some great hockey and the USA ended up finishing bottom of pool B, resulting in a quarter final match against the top ranked team in the tournament. Frustrating given our hard work in the first three games.
The USA team were strong and fast, so it was always going to be a difficult game. On the day they got their tactics better than us, and we finished the game on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline, ending our chances of a top 4 finish. We beat Azerbaijan in the play-offs, meaning we would meet another daunting task in the shape of South Africa in the battle for 5th and 6th place. Ultimately it was not to be, world-record holder Pietie Coetzee scoring an unstoppable drag flick to win the match for the South Africans.
Post-tournament, we are really disappointed that our huge performances in the pool stages were not reflected in our final placing. Last year we lost 6-0 to India, so to beat them convincingly shows just how far we have come. We are not scared to take teams on any more, we played consistently well throughout the tournament which is rare for an Irish team in my time as a player. The squad is young and relatively inexperienced (the South African squad have ten players with over 100 caps), but we played hockey with more calmness and authority than ever before.
There have always been and will continue to be those who constantly slate and criticise the decision to centralise training. As a player and someone who has made huge sacrifices for the cause, those outside of the squad have little right to pass comment when they have no idea what the process has involved. Many are very quick to pass judgement without any hard evidence to back their claims. In my mind I have absolutely no doubt that if CPP wasn’t put in place we would not be good enough to claim a place in London 2012. I will be the first to admit that this time next week I may well be admitting we still weren’t good enough. But you never know until you try. If we were to travel at the same speed as other top teams, we’ll still be behind them. Something had to change to give us the best possible chance of qualifying. We’ve upgraded our Mercedes to a Ferrari. We might not be on pole position, but we are making our way up the grid. J
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