Three Rock through to EHL round two

Joy unconfined for Three Rock Rovers this afternoon as they became thefirst Irish team to reach the last 16 of the Euro Hockey League in Lille,knocking out Atletic Terrassa, one of the pre-tournament favourites – in the process.

A score-draw between Leuven and Terrassa was the only result that could eliminate them in the final match of the group.The Irishmen, though, were made to suffer as they watched from the stands.

The Belgian side took a 2-1 lead by half-time but were subjected to second half onslaught by Terrassa, with Xavi Ribas, Roc Oliva and Inaki Freixa piled on thepressure.

Manu Leroy, the Leuven goalkeeper, ended up the Rovers’ hero, denying the equalising goal that would have eliminated them, blocking everything that came his way before Renaud Pagrazio sealed the win, making it 3-1 with four seconds left on the clock.

For once, an Irish hockey team was not on the wrong end of a hard luck story, having put in an admirable or ‘plucky’ performance. Recent history has seen plenty of examples but Rovers’ coach Turloch O’Siochain had faith in his side that were classed as one of the rank-outsiders for progression from round one of the EHL.

“We came here to play, we didn’t come here to sit back and defend. Nor did we come here to throw the game against Terrassa 9-0 and try and focus on trying to pick up a win against Leuven. I was confident we could perform at the highest level. Now we’ve proved we can do it.

“Historically, Irish teams have been able to get up for a big game but then fallen away. We talk about belief the whole time in the squad and I think we can say that all the players fully believe they can do great things.”

Rovers will now take part in the round of 16 at Easter 2009.