Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Three Rock to travel to Hamburg

Three Rock Rovers will travel to the home of the EHL champions, UHC Hamburg (Uhlenhorst) for the KO16 round of the competition.

The last 16 phase of the competition takes place from Friday 10 to Monday 13 April with the draw for the round happening in the next couple of weeks.

Group winners will play runners-up in the next round, ensuring Rovers will probably play one of Europe’s leading lights with one of the Dutch trio Bloemendaal, Rotterdam or Amsterdam; Spain’s Polo Barcelona or Egara, England’s East Grinstead or Germany’s Dusseldorfer potential opponents.

The winners of the Round 2 knock-out stage will reach the Quarter Finals, with matches being played on 12/13th April.

* Picture courtesy of Stephen West

7 comments:

Queso said...

With Three Rock Rovers achieving their goal of progressing to Round 2 KO16, the 1st part of moving Ireland up the european club rankings to 8th place has been realised to a great degree.

Rovers have amassed 10 ranking points for Ireland already!!!

Both Scottish sides Azzurri Kelburne and Western Wildcats were eliminated at Round 1 and Scotland's total ranking points for 2008/2009 season is 13.

The Russian club side Dinamo Kazan also eliminated at Round 1 has received 7 ranking points, however, their 2nd club (Dinamo Electrostal) can add to this total as they are also competing in the EuroTrophy with Pembroke Wanderers.

Pembroke need to reach the final of the EuroTrophy (winners are awarded 12 ranking points and runners-up are awarded 10 ranking points) and also finish higher than the Russian club side, then in addition to Rover's achievements in EHL Ireland stand a great chance of overtaking both Russia and Scotland in the European Club Rankings and being awarded 2 EHL places for next season.

The only slightly negative consequence of this would be that the Irish Senior Cup would no longer be a route to Europe, with the EHL places awarded to the IHL finalists

Anonymous said...

Is this true? "The only slightly negative consequence of this would be that the Irish Senior Cup would no longer be a route to Europe, with the EHL places awarded to the IHL finalists"

Why would it not be IHL winners & ISC winners?

Anonymous said...

As always Queso a fantastic summary. Much appreciated!

Anonymous said...

jockish performance from el queso!

question though: even if ireland move up in the rankings and get a 2nd team into EHL, would they not still hold onto their original position in the euro trophy?

HELP ME QUESO!!!

Anonymous said...

Teams with two ranking spots in the EHL do not have a place in the Euro Trophy as far as I know.

The reason that ISC winners wouldn't qualify for the EHL is that the competition is not played under EHL rules where as the IHL is played under EHL rules.

Dave

Anonymous said...

What do you mean by EHL rules? Does that come from the IHA?

The rules being employed in the IHL are only being used in ireland whereas all other qualifying tournaments, ie domestic leagues, in Europe for the EHL use the old rules.

Queso said...

The national association (IHA)reserve the right to nominate the clubs to represent them in European competition.

Before the EHL came about the IHA decided that the All-Ireland Champions would be Ireland's representative in the European Club Champions competition and that the Irish Senior Cup winners would be Irelands representative in the European Cup Winners Cup competition.

In situations where one club completed a "double" in a season. i.e. All-Irelands + Irish Senior Cup; then that club was obligated to attend the Club Champions competition with the Irish Senior Cup runners-up representing Ireland in the Cup Winners Cup.

This situation happened in:
1993 - Lisnagarvey
1994 - Lisnagarvey
1998 - Instonians
2004 - Instonians
2005 - Lisnagarvey

With the introduction of EHL last season and changes to the All-Ireland competition the Irish Senior Cup winners were still nominated by the IHA to be Ireland's representatives in the EuroTrophy competition with All-Ireland champions nominated as Ireland's EHL representatives.

However, further changes to the All-Ireland championship with the introduction this season of the IHL might see the Irish Senior Cup lose it's status as a route to European competition altogether.

I believe the decision now is that both IHL finalists will be nominated by the IHA as Irelands representatives in Europe. (Still need this confirmed though)

Whether that's two places available in EHL or one in EHL and one in EuroTrophy just depends on Irelands ranking.