ALTHOUGH France poached a winning goal three minutes from the end, Irish coach George Blackwood was not at all dispirited after his Under-20 side's defeat in the opening match in the Celtic Four Nations hockey tournament at Porthmadoc, North Wales, yesterday.

"It's just the start of our build-up to next year's European Under-21 championship," he said. "Yes, we were experimenting to quite a degree.

Though we lost, the team showed character to come back to 2-2."

In a nervous first half, goals were conceded to Frederic Soyez and Nicholas Gaillard, in between which Colin Hanna had two shots well saved by Cedric Ambroziewicz.

After the interval, the Irish side found its rhythm, attacking ceaselessly to force nine short corners. A penalty stroke, won by David Hanna, was converted by Julian Lewis, and further pressure yielded an equaliser, put away dexterously by John Ahern

Clarke Kennedy, Brian Waring, Jason Black and Andrew Cousins were particularly assertive in this 30 minutes of dominance, but the French launched a finishing offensive to force a penalty, from which the mature captain Cedric Dagostino struck the winner.