A SILVER LINING FOR IRISH
PROUD captain Kathryn Mullan believes her heroic squad “has put hockey on the map” in Ireland following their silver medal at the World Cup.
The Irish, the second lowest ranked team in the tournament, upset the odds to reach the London decider but were outclassed in yesterday’s loss to defending champions Holland.
But Graham Shaw’s side will still receive a civic reception hosted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin tonight in honour of their terrific achievement.
Ireland’s previous best finish in the competition was 11th place back in 1994 and Mullan feels the team have helped create a lasting legacy. “We’ve been living in a bit of a bubble so I don’t think we really realise what is going on at home, that’s something really exciting to go back to,” Mullan told BT Sport.
“I really think we’ve put hockey on the map and we’ve made a real difference.
“You always say you want to inspire the next generation and sometimes you don’t really think about it but now I think we’ve definitely done that and it’s more than we ever could have imagined.
“We wanted to come here and cause an upset – and we’ve caused an upset. All the girls have enjoyed every single second of it. It’s stories like this, this is why we all play sport and it’s amazing talking to people from other nations, literally everyone was behind us because we did something really, really special. I’m just so proud of the girls.”
The free-scoring Dutch, who registered 29 goals in five matches to reach the final, retained the trophy won on home soil four years ago with ease and have now won the competition a record eight times.
Goals from Lidewij Welten, Kelly Jonker, Kitty van Male, Malou Pheninckx, Marloes Keetels and Caia van Maasakker earned their emphatic win at the Lee Valley Hockey Stadium. Dutch coach Alyson Annan (inset) said: “We played well, we did what we had to do and I’m just really proud.
“You always have to have respect for whoever you play against and if we were to go out there today and not play our game, we couldn’t have had respect for our own game or Ireland’s. “You can’t go out there and play half-hearted.
“The girls work really hard, the most difficult thing is to play simple hockey and our girls have done that throughout the tournament.”
In the earlier game played yesterday, Spain beat Australia 3-1 in the bronze medal match.