3 days ago
Deja vu as Ireland hit for six again against Australia in FIH Pro League
Ireland 1-6 Australia
It was deja vu for Ireland in the FIH Pro League as they suffered a 6-1 defeat to Australia for the second day in a row.
Reigning champions Australia had dominated Tuesday's encounter on route to a five-goal victory and they repeated the feat on Wednesday in the Belgian city of Antwerp, with Ireland adrift at the bottom of the 2024-25 standings.
Ireland were level with the Australians early in the second quarter after Lee Cole scored from a penalty corner to make it 1-1, cancelling out Nathan Ephraums' opener.
But the Irish side then succumbed to five unanswered goals from Ephraums, Jeremy Hayward, Craig Marais, Davis Atkin and Ky Willott as Australia stormed to a seventh FIH Pro League win which leaves them second in the table behind the Netherlands with three matches in hand.
The result keeps Ireland ninth and bottom after playing 14 games and are 11 points adrift of eighth-placed India.
"We let ourselves down playing with 10-players for large parts," said Ireland captain Kyle Marshall.
"A couple of green and yellow cards that we have to be disappointed with ourselves for receiving. We know that teams will hurt you when you are playing with one less player.
"We definitely applied ourselves well during those periods, but the longer you are in those periods the more you are open to conceding goals, and little mistakes compound."
Ireland will play their final two league matches of the season against Spain on Saturday and Sunday.
