THE Irish hockey squad completely banished the memory of Thursday's 6-1 defeat by Spain when they held the Olympic silver medallists to a 1-1 draw in Barcelona yesterday.

The Irish party were using the two practice games to fine tune preparations for next month's World Cup qualifying tournament in Malaysia and today the players will watch Spain playing Belgium, Ireland's first opponents in Kuala Lumpur.

Adopting a less cavalier approach than was employed 24 hours earlier, Ireland fell behind in the 54th minute but young Instonians striker Mark Irwin plundered an equaliser eight minutes from time following a penalty corner.

Lisnagarvey's Mark Tumilty and Avoca's JP Murphy both played part of the game and Pembroke goalkeeper Nigel Henderson made his debut on Thursday (although no caps will be awarded to mark their first appearances for their country at senior level).