Passmore's charges can't afford any slip-ups in Olympic bid

Men's HockeyIreland must break the French hoodoo if they are to mount a meaningful challenge at the Olympic qualifer that starts in New Zealand this weekend.

Dave Passmore has stuck largely with the panel that failed to retain elite 'A' status at the European championships last summer.

Of the 18 selected for Auckland, only Jason Black, Tim Lewis and Mike Watt missed the disappointment in Manchester where the 1-0 defeat by France was crucial.

The rest have Frederic Soyez's first half winner gouged painfully into their memories as good performances against Netherlands and Spain were set to nought.

Now they find themselves pitted against Soyez and company once more, this time half a world away from home at the start of the Beijing eliminator.

The format of the competition is a round robin involving six nations, with the top two contesting a final at the end of nine exhausting days, with one place at the Games at stake.

Dave Passmore's men cannot afford to allow their European neighbours to trip them up once more, if they are to have any realistic chance of reaching the decider.

They enter the tournament as fourth seeds, ahead only of Trinidad & Tobago and the United States, with Argentina and their hosts the Black Sticks as the favourites.

After their match this evening's match (Saturday afternoon local time) they then meet the very ambitious New Zealaznders a day later.

The reality is that the the best prepared men's hockey team ever to emerge from Ireland will have slipped out of contention unless they can conjure at least a win and a draw from the weekend.

The match against Argentina is scheduled for tomorrow week, Saturday February 9th, with the play-offs due to be staged the following day.

Irish results during last week's training spin to South Australia were not especially encouraging as they lost twice in Adelaide to China.

Coach Passmore afterwards blamed a failure to convert penalty corners, and this aspect of play has been the focus of much effort on the training ground.

He omitted Lisnagarvey's Timmy Cockram from the squad in favour of fellow Ulster man Mike Watt, so Stephen Butler, Mark Gleghorne and John Jermyn are the obvious set piece strikers.

The return of Jason Black and Tim Lewis to assist captain Paddy Brown gives a good solid appearance to the defence.

Ireland must draw encouragement from the experience of Canada, beaten twice by Ireland during the summer, who hijacked Argentina last year to take their place at the Olympics as American champions.