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Nicola Daly scored a worldy as Ireland's hockey stars stunned South Africa today

And Nikki Evans grabbed a hat-trick.

THIS CLASS SOLO effort from Nicola Daly was the icing on the cake for Ireland today, who ran out 4-1 winners over South Africa in Valencia.

And Nikki Evansโ€™ hit a hat trick in the opening game of their Hockey World League semi-final. It secured an excellent victory over a higher-ranked  side in the world rankings โ€“ Ireland are 14th..

โ€œIt was fantastic,โ€ captain Megan Frazer said. โ€œIt was a perfectly executed game-plan that inspired the result.โ€

The result puts Ireland in great shape to advance to one of the four quarter-final places from their initial five-team group. They are back in action tomorrow at 2pm Irish time against European champions Germany.

The tournament acts as the main event for Olympic qualification.

Ireland:  E Gray, C Sargent, E Smyth, K Mullan, S McCay, M Frazer, A Connery, L Colvin, N Daly, H Matthews, A Oโ€™Flanagan

Subs: Y Oโ€™Byrne, N Evans, G Pinder, C Watkins, K Dillon, A Meeke, A McFerran

Power ranking the 8 best current internationals with a League of Ireland background

It doesnโ€™t sound like Martin Oโ€™Neill is expecting a pretty game against Scotland

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    Mute Chris Mc
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    Jun 1st 2022, 1:52 PM

    Replace one warrior with another. Good.

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    Mute SPQH
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    Jun 1st 2022, 10:45 PM

    @Chris Mc: Seanie will right a few things ahead of next season.

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    Mute Trev
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    Jun 2nd 2022, 12:22 AM

    @Chris Mc: Iโ€™m sure you remember this quote from the 2017 Lions tour: Phil Gifford, from Stuff, who was critical of the Lions style of play in general, referred to Sean Oโ€™Brien as โ€œa flanker so tough and hard-edged heโ€™s basically a roll of barbed wire in boots.โ€ Great move by Leinster.

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    Mute Bgkph
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    Jun 1st 2022, 1:48 PM

    Great signing a great bit of business

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    Mute Tony Mcgrath
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    Jun 1st 2022, 5:46 PM

    No need to clean the toilets in cassidys

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    Mute Trevor Johnston
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    Jun 1st 2022, 10:47 PM

    @Tony Mcgrath: bit of an insulting remark from a Munster supporter. Check your own coaches for a similar problem.

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    Mute Gally Had
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    Jun 1st 2022, 1:47 PM

    He might play a few games even. Would love to see it

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    Mute CAMILA REMONA
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    Jun 1st 2022, 5:52 PM

    I thought he was taking the pee ;)

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    Mute Martin
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    Jun 1st 2022, 9:30 PM

    @CAMILA REMONA: bad news for the Dublin homeless

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    Mute Scott Crossfield
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    Jun 1st 2022, 2:12 PM

    Good project that hopefully works out

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    Mute Ro Molloy
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    Jun 1st 2022, 5:11 PM

    Seamus replacing Leamy. I wonder could we persuade Isa to come back and replace Dr. Phil?

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    Mute Martin
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    Jun 1st 2022, 9:31 PM

    RDS busy installing golden showers

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    Mute Harry O'Callaghan
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    Jun 2nd 2022, 1:20 AM

    Out with the old, in with the new!

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