Irish struggle

After losing their opening two games at the Four Nations' tournament in Vancouver, to the USA and Canada, Ireland go in to today's match against Japan desperately in need of a morale-boosting win. "We've moved from the third to the second division of world hockey this week and we're finding it tough," admitted Irish coach Riet Kuper yesterday, as she reflected on a poor display in Thursday's 2-0 defeat by the hosts. "We've improved at the back, I'm happy with that, but I've been disappointed with our attacking play. We have forwards who score a lot of goals in club hockey in Ireland, but they're not even getting close here - that's frustrating. But this is the real world in hockey and it's all part of the learning process for us. Some of our players didn't know what hit them this week."

The form of sweeper Arlene Thompson and newcomers Pamela Magill and Linda Caulfield, all of whom played particularly well in defence against the USA in Wednesday's 2-1 defeat, has been one of the few aspects of the trip so far to raise Kuper's spirits.

Japan, who have already drawn with Canada and beaten the USA 3-1, are unlikely to prove any less testing for the Irish.