Burns back on track

Men's Hockey: The good news for Irish coach Dave Passmore is Karl Burns' hamstring injury, one he had been nursing for several weeks, is mended.

Passmore had a healthy squad to choose from after defender Burns came through the Munster Cup final for his club, Cork Church of Ireland, last weekend. That was one positive as the side flew out yesterday for Changzhou, China, in a bid to qualify for their first World Cup since 1990.

When the squad touch down in Changzhou they'll have five days to acclimatise and prepare for their first pool match against old rivals England on April 12th. There are two pools of six teams in the qualifier and following the round-robin stage the top two teams in each pool automatically qualify for the World Cup in September. The remaining teams battle it out for the final qualifying fifth spot.

" The final five days in China are a crucial part of our long preparation," said national coach Passmore.

"The athletes will be carefully monitored as they recover from the flight and resultant jet lag and it will be an opportunity to get used to the surroundings, pitch and to sharpen our penalty corners.

"There will be some down time for the players to relax and spend some time together whilst preparing mentally for the tough 12 days ahead," he continued.

"They will have had nearly a week without picking up their sticks which will help bring the hunger required to start the tournament at full steam."

Ireland have been to two World Cups before, the first in 1978 in Buenos Aires where they finished 12th from 14 teams and the second in Lahore in 1990 where they came 12th from 12 teams. Both, however, put Ireland at a significantly higher world ranking than the current team, ranked 23.

Ireland have also played in six qualifiers in Rome 1977, where they finished second, Kuala Lumpur 1981 (fourth), Barcelona 1985 (sixth), Madison, USA (fifth), Poznan 1993 (ninth) and Kuala Lumpur 1997 (12th). No Irish team competed in the Edinburgh event in 2001.

The positive thing to take out of this year's tournament is that Ireland go to China having won the European Championship Trophy last September, which puts them back into the European top flight. They have also had some good results since then against higher ranked opposition (South Africa, Belgium, France).

FIXTURES - Saturday: Leinster Senior League: Division One - Monkstown V Fingal, 1.30pm Rathdown; Railway Union v Avoca, 2.30pm, Park Avenue; Pembroke v YMCA, 2pm, Serpentine Ave; Dublin University v TRR, 1pm, Santry; Glenanne v Corinthians, 1.30pm, Glenanne Park. Division Two - Kilkenny v Bray, 1pm, Kilkenny College; Naas v Clontarf, 2:30pm, Naas; Skerries v Weston 12pm, Skerries; UCD v Portrane/StB/PP 2.15pm, Belfield. Sunday - Leinster Junior Cup Final - Railway Union v Weston, 12pm, Serpentine Ave; Railway Cup Final - Corinthians v Monkstown 2pm; Leinster Minor Cup Final - Kilkenny v Portrane/StB/PP 4pm.