DARREN SMITH HAS agreed to become coach of the Women’s Irish Hockey team, it has been announced.

The New Zealander had previously served six years as Assistant Coach of his native country’s Men’s team, who recently finished 9th at the Olympic Games in London.

Smith also previously represented New Zealand 212 times as a player, winning a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2002 in the process.

Speaking about his appointment, Smith said:

“I’m very honoured to be given the opportunity to work with the Green Army toward the Rio 2016 Olympics. This is a group of players who have been committed to making an impact on the international stage for some time and were within one match of being at the London Olympics.

“It will be exciting to meet the squad and start building toward success. I’ll be focused not only on the national team results, but also on working closely within the hockey environment to help enhance the high performance programme. Through this I hope to ensure our talented players succeed on the international stage.”

Captain of the Irish team, Alex Speers, expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of working with the New Zealander.

“I am absolutely delighted on the appointment of Darren and really looking forward to working under his world class leadership. He is coming into the ladies squad in a very exciting time and I have no doubt his wealth of coaching and playing experience will guide the squad to consistently perform on the world stage.”

Smith will officially take up the role in January 2013, and his first major challenge will be the World League 2 to be held in Spain in late February.

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