THE IRISH NETBALL team tomorrow morning set off to Singapore for the Nations Cup tournament.
The annual event, which sees them face sides including Samoa, Botswana, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and the hosts, takes place from 7-13 December.
It is the third successive year in which the Irish side have been invited to compete at the tournamrnt, with the team hoping to improve on their current 28th-place world ranking.
Speaking to TheScore.ie ahead of event last month, team member Sinèad O’Connor said that her side were hoping to build on the partial success of last year.
“They really recognised us last year. The other team managers were commenting [about us], they knew the Irish were there to really go out and go hard. I think they underestimated us a bit, because we beat USA, who were ranked 18th last year. Everyone’s jaws dropped. It was also a lot closer between us and Singapore last year [than the year before].
“There’ll be some brilliant players [this year]. The first year, we were a little bit intimidated, but the second year, we were much improved. This year, we’re going out heads held high. Our goal will be to improve on that performance that left them talking last year and not just finish fifth out of six, the top three [would be achievable].”
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Originally published Wednesday, 21.50
Don’t know what he can be aggrieved about he elbowed toner straight in the face red card all day long fair play to the linesman cause the ref was initially going for the yellow card
@Ed Walsh: Will ya stop …barely deserved a yellow never mind a red .Embarrassing play acting from Toner .Ref initially was going for his shirt pocket for a yellow and it was the Pats fans screaming on the grass hill that made him witch to the back pocket.
There was only one really bad tackle all night ,on McCormack ,and the ref shit himself and barely produced a yellow .The diving was disgraceful too and the ref ,who’d lost the plot and control ,ignored it until the 93rd minute
@gavexile: OK
@gavexile: 100 per cent
@gavexile: Are you nuts, elbow to the face, deserved red.
He deserved to get the red card and should be banned for more than 1 game, it was an elbow to the face, really bad challenge.
Graham Cummins should be banned for a lot longer. There was no need for what he done.
What a great start for cork , st pats won’t be the push aside team they were last year !
@Tricksy: pat’s are a gutsy side, worried us ,very strong in corners/attack,or else our defence were well below par