Title holders Australia beat dogged Ireland in opener

Unfancied side gives mighty scare to heavyweights, debutants China hold England

become the first nation to win three successive titles, Friday’s match will be a wake-up call. Half of their side is playing for the first time in the World Cup with the aim of preparing them for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but if they want to stay in title contention, they will have to work more on their forward line, which failed to make much of an impression.

“Ireland played well and gave us a tough challenge. We are happy that we won the match, but at the same time we need to fix some of the areas where we didn’t perform well in today’s match,” Australia goalkeeper Andrew Charter said after the match.

‘MANY LAPSES’

“Our defence was good, and we stopped a number of good moves by Ireland. But we need to work on our forward department. There were many lapses, especially in penalty corner execution,” he added.

Ireland skipper David Harte was not satisfied with the outcome of the match. “There was no pressure on us playing against the defending champions. Somehow despite playing good hockey, we lost. It’s a disappointment for us,” said Harte.

STRONG IRISH START

Though the score-line at the end of the first quarter indicates a well-matched game, it was Ireland who dominated the 15 minutes of the tie. Because it would be impossible to stop Australia from scoring, Ireland realised the best way was to attack and confine them more to defence.

Ireland made two attempts, one each from the left and right flanks, in the first three minutes, pushing Australia into defence. Australia forced the first penalty corner in the 11th minute. Blake Govers was not successful, but his flick led to another penalty corner. This time he was on the mark, giving Australia the lead.

Two minutes later, however, Ireland pulled off the equaliser. Eugene Magee penetrated into the striking zone from the left top and passed to Shane O’donoghue, who made it 1-1.

The second quarter didn’t see much action. Australia had more ball possession and earned two penalty corners, but failed to convert both. In the 33rd minute, Australia’s Timothy Brand took a pass from Blake Govers and pushed it in. The first shot was saved, but he calmly controlled and reverse-hit the rebound (2-1).

CHINA DRAW

Appearing in their World Cup debut match, China impressed everyone by playing a 2-2 draw against Commonwealth Games bronze medallist England on Friday.

Guo Xiaoping put China in the lead in the fifth minute. England bounced back in the 14th minute when Mark Gleghorne scored through a dragflick. England’s Liam Ansell gave his team a 2-1 lead in the 47th minute, but Talake Du executed a penalty corner in the dying minutes to make it 2-2.

There were many lapses, especially in penalty corner execution. We will work on them before taking on our next opponents. A CHARTER, Australia goalkeeper