Ireland's formidable task

HOCKEY:The draw for next summer's European Championships in Manchester has put Ireland in a formidable pool with hosts England, Holland, the world's top ranked side, and Italy, with Gene Muller's team starting their campaign against the English on August 18th.

"You have to play all the teams anyway so the order of games isn't that important," said the Irish coach.

"In a sense it's quite good to have the tougher ones first because that should get us up to speed before the Italian game which is likely to be more important. Anything we get from the first two games would be a huge bonus as they are two very good sides, to say the least."

The other pool is made up of Germany, Spain, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, with the top three in the tournament automatically qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games. Teams finishing outside the top three would then have to win an Olympic qualifying tournament to make it to Beijing.

On the home front, the draw for the second round of the Jacqui Potter Cup has been made; the outstanding tie is the pairing of Hermes and Pembroke Wanderers.