Tough First Day

Game 1:

Lost 14 - 10 v Poland

As I highlighted before the game, the Poles were underseeded for the tournament. With the seedings seemingly based off just 2 tournaments this year, which only half the teams attended, there is a lot of potential for upsets. With Slovakia also performing above their seeding today it looks like we may have ended up the the group of death.

The Poles played a similar game to us, based around hard cutting and tough man defence and no fancy breaks, or throws, or tactics. The athleticism and height of their D line shut down our offences deep game ann although we moved the disc well we would suddenly make a simple mistake to turnover in nearly every point. Our D line played better than they have all seasons and managed a good few breaks to keep us in the game. As the game neared the end the O line went on a shockingly bad run and the Poles punished us to run out victors.

Game 2:

Lost 17 - 10 v Germany

The Germans were top seeds in our group and we knew this game was going to be very tough. The Germans played unusal structures on offence, often having four and sometimes even five handlers and two or three cutters. Their range and accuracy of throwing made it very tough for our defence to turn them. We went on a few runs but never looked like closing the gap that they had established early on. Our heads never dropped though, and we kept fighting them until the end. A much more encouraging performance than the first game. The O line looked more comfortable as the game went on, though still kept throwing away chances.

We have another tough day tomorrow against the 2nd and 3rd seeds in our group. Belgium come with a very good reputation and we lost badly to the Dutch at Windmill. We'll be hoping to cause an upset of our own. The mood of the team is still upbeat: we all know we can play much better than we have and are eager to prove that.

One More Day

Just one more day until games begin and the excitement is growing. All 3 teams went to the main fields this morning for a light training session to get the legs moving after a long day travelling and get used to throwing in the conditions. The weather has been perfect for us Irish so far: dry, warm but overcast with negligible wind. I hope it continues but as I type this I can hear rain starting to tap on the window...

Accommodation is grand, comfortable but not luxurious in any sense. Shared bathrooms and showers may become an inconvenience but the common rooms with massive tv make up for that. The food isn't good at all so far but we're lucky enough to have a Lidl across the road from us.

The big news so far is that the mixed team has been rocked by news of an illness to Windmill MVP Fiona Mernagh. A late night hospitalization was followed by another hospitalization this afternoon. She has since been disharged and is confident of playing in Ireland's opening game tomorrow morning.

Group Schedule

Poland (12) Sunday 11am
Germany (2) Sunday 4pm

Netherlands (5) Monday 9am
Belgium (4) Monday 1.30pm

Slovakia (10) Tuesday 1.30pm

Switzerland (13) Wednesday 11am

Only one 9am start in the first 3 days makes me very happy. A pretty tough start otherwise. To kick off with a game against a low-seeded unknown like Poland is far from ideal.

At the u23 championships last year the Irish Mixed team also had Poland, the tournament's bottom seeds, in their first game, lost to them and Poland went on to reach the semi-finals.
We're not going to be fooled by their seeding. It should be a cracking game.