Ireland 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup Final Run

India and Ireland women teams were lined up in the tunnel at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in London, waiting for their cue before the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup quarter-final. From the television angle, India were on the right, led by Rani Rampal. Ireland were on the left, led by Katie Mullan.

Usually, when players are waiting in that tunnel at a World Cup quarter-final, you see what you expect to see. Heads straight, focused, locked in.

India, playing in their first World Cup quarter-final since 1978, looked serious. Focused. Their body language carried none of the looseness visible on the other side of the tunnel.

Across from them, Ireland were smiling. Talking. Someone said something and a few of them laughed. At a World Cup quarter-final, with everything on the line, Ireland looked like they were out there to enjoy the game rather than be crushed by it.

That image kept repeating throughout the tournament. This is the story of the Ireland 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup campaign and how a team smiled their way to history.

The Team Nobody Expected to Go This Far

Ireland had qualified for the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup after years of near-misses and heartbreak. A penalty shootout loss to China in the 2015 World League quarter-finals had cost them a place at the Rio Olympics.

Graham Shaw, their coach, was a demanding presence. A former international player from Glenanne, he was known for his directness and his competitive edge. He had spent years adapting Ireland to play to their strengths: a defensively organised team capable of hurting opponents on the counter. Shaw later acknowledged he sometimes went too far with his intensity and had to learn to tone down how he engaged with the players.

The squad that arrived at Lee Valley was part-time. Teachers, students, players who held down day jobs alongside their hockey. They had not qualified for a World Cup in sixteen years. Simply reaching the knockout stages, as Mullan admitted, would have counted as a genuine achievement.

Roisin Upton later recalled that there was essentially no external pressure on Ireland going into the tournament, beyond what they placed on themselves. They were ranked 16th. Nobody expected anything.

Ireland opened with a 3-1 win over USA. Then they beat India 1-0 in the group stage through an Anna O’Flanagan goal in the 13th minute, which put them through to the quarter-finals with a match to spare. They lost their final group game 1-0 to hosts England, finished top of Pool B with six points, and went into the knockout stages as the lowest-ranked team left in the tournament.

Shaw kept saying the same thing through all of it. “We’ll smile, enjoy it, prepare as best as we possibly can.”

The Quarter-final: Ireland vs India

Ireland vs India in semi-finals: Ireland looked calm while India looked focused

India had beaten Italy in the crossover to set up a rematch with Ireland. For India, this was their first World Cup quarter-final since 1978. The occasion carried real historical weight.

In that tunnel before the match, India looked the part of a team who understood what was at stake. On the other side, Katie Mullan led Ireland out the way she had led them out in every previous match. One reporter covering the tournament wrote that “Mullan’s beaming face has lit up the tunnel each time as she has led her side into combat at the Lee Valley Stadium.”

The match was tight and edgy. Both defences were organised. The quality of the final pass from both sides was poor. Neither team could find a way through in sixty minutes. It finished 0-0 and went to a shootout.

Ayeisha McFerran made three saves. Roisin Upton stepped forward first. By her own admission, her shootout record was not good. “My odds wouldn’t be great,” she said. “I have missed more than I have scored. But with a shootout, you can be as good as you want in practice but it is about how you feel on the day. I backed myself and wanted to take one.” She scored on her reverse. Ali Meeke and Chloe Watkins converted. Ireland won the shootout 3-1.

Ireland were in the semifinals.

Something Was Changing Around Them

After the quarter-final win, something shifted around the Irish camp. Supporters began arriving at Lee Valley in larger numbers. Back home, people who had never watched a hockey match were finding out what the tournament was and where it was being played. A squad that had arrived in London with little external attention was now being followed by a nation.

Shaw noticed it. He was careful about it. “Nothing changes because we have made a quarter-final,” he said. “We’ll smile, enjoy it, prepare as best as we possibly can and continue to give people our time because it is important to us.”

From inside the camp, Mullan described the atmosphere in terms that explained a great deal. “The night before a game was like Christmas Eve,” she said, “and then the game itself was like Christmas morning.”

The Semifinal: Ireland vs Spain

Spain were ranked significantly higher. Ireland, now in territory no Irish women’s hockey team had ever reached, were playing in a World Cup semifinal for the first time.

In the tunnel before that match, you saw the same thing again. Ireland smiling. Talking among themselves. The green contingent in the stands had grown with each round. The attention back home had grown with it. The faces were the same faces that had appeared in the tunnel before the India quarter-final.

Ireland scored first through O’Flanagan in the opening quarter. Spain equalised in the third. The match went to a shootout. O’Flanagan had what appeared to be a goal disallowed. McFerran saved again and again until sudden death, when she saved once more. Gillian Pinder stepped up and scored. Ireland were in the World Cup final.

“We are over the moon,” Pinder said. “We can’t stop smiling.”

Shaw was overwhelmed. “I never thought this would happen in our lifetime. I’m just so proud of them.” And then, later, he said simply: “The girls smiled the whole way through the tournament, which showed the belief that they had.”

The Final: Ireland vs Netherlands

The Netherlands were the best team in the world. They had won the World Cup seven times and were playing in front of a large Dutch contingent at a venue that felt like a home ground.

Before the match, standing in that tunnel one last time, you saw the same thing.

Ireland. Smiling.

The Dutch were too good on the day. Their speed and depth were beyond what Ireland could match. The 6-0 scoreline was honest. And yet when the silver medals were placed around the players’ necks, the crowd at Lee Valley gave Ireland a reception that, as Mullan recalled, felt bigger than the one the Dutch winners had received.

“I’ll never forget getting that silver medal put around my neck and getting a bigger cheer than the Dutch team who had just won the World Cup,” she said. “It felt like a home World Cup.”

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