Ireland looking at the Olympic goal

The Irish men's team, who are currently in South Africa preparing for the first of their Olympic qualifiers are ranked 15th in the world, while the Irish women's team have moved up to 14th as a result of a 2014 season in which they beat Korea (ninth), South Africa (11th) and Belgium (12th).

The South African men, who are ranked two places above Ireland at 13, have in the first two matches drawn and lost 5-4 to Ireland, which is an accurate reflection of the narrow margins between many of the top sides.

Ireland are hoping to become the first of the Irish team sports to qualify for an Olympic Games since the soccer team did back in 1948 and they are in South Africa now (with the Netherlands and Belgium) preparing for that.

There have been two-hand medal winning sailing boats and team time trials in cycling as well as rowing teams but in the sense that a large squad of athletes in a sport where substitutions can be made during competition, Ireland has not had a team at any Games for 67 years and counting.

The first Olympic hurdle for Ireland begins on February 28th in San Diego, California. Another tournament has already taken place in Singapore, where Malaysia, Japan and Poland went through and there is a third to be played in Capetown in March. All the qualifying teams feed into the next phase making the qualification process a truly global event.

If Ireland can qualify from San Diego they are into the next round of matches, where the six highest qualified nations from a number of tournaments will go to Rio.

There they will join the host country Brazil (once they meet International Olympic Committee minimum criteria) and the five continental champions for a 12-team Olympic event.

It seems simple but two tournaments this year could see the men and women’s teams bridge an Olympic gap for team sport.