Women’s Hockey World Cup qualifier: Ireland 0 Japan 0. Ireland win 3-1 in a penalty shoot-out.
They’ll be toasting Elizabeth Murphy for a while yet in the Irish camp after her two saves in a penalty shoot-out against Japan in Chile on Sunday evening helped clinch Ireland qualification for this summer’s World Cup.
Captain Sarah Hawkshaw, Hannah McLoughlin and Jessica McMaster showed no end of composure to convert their efforts, while Murphy’s calm in thwarting two of Japan’s means Ireland will join hockey’s elite in Belgium and the Netherlands in August.
The shoot-out followed a tense scoreless draw between the sides, a much cagier affair than their pool meeting on Tuesday, which Ireland won 2-1.
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They had the better of the opening quarter, but came under huge pressure in the second, Japan winning four penalty corners. They held out, though, and gradually took control of the game, and were utterly dominant in the final quarter.
They thought they had won it two minutes from time when Katie Mullan turned the ball home following the scramble that resulted from a penalty corner, but a video review showed the ball had hit the back of McMaster’s stick in the lead-up, and so the ‘goal’ was disallowed.
It was Ireland, though, who held their nerve in the shoot-out, their three goals expertly taken.
Earlier, Ireland’s men took gold in the final of their World Cup qualifying tournament with a 2-1 win over France, a result that rounded off a flawless week that saw them win all five of their games. They fell behind to France in the second quarter, but a Greg Williams double, his goals coming in the 25th and 35th minutes, saw them home.
Ireland: E Murphy; S McCauley, H McLoughlin, C Perdue, E Curran; C Hamill, S Hawkshaw (capt), M Carey; N Carey, S Torrans, K Mullan. Subs: H Micklem, C Beggs, R Upton, J McMaster, E Kealy, M Jennings, L Mulcahy.
