Ireland and Poland have played 19 memorable matches since they first met in Madrid in 1974. Yesterday the Poles - beaten (5-4) for fifth place in Dublin four years ago - evened the score 8-3-8 in the European Nations Cup in Padova, winning the wooden spoon struggle in Pool A. Lustily struck goals by the Mikula brothers, Piotr and Artur, at an early stage of each half prompted a positive Irish response but penetrative thrusts by David McAnulty, Jason Black and Paddy Brown were barely repulsed before the interval.

The only reward came in the 63rd minute when Mark Raphael scored his first international goal. He finished off an attack launched by Ivan Steen and carried forward incisively by Alistair Dunne who had his strongest game of the tournament. The Corkman, however, could not engineer a further opening as Ireland were left pointless.

Yet, even if Poland were the sharper side, reflected in a 7-2 short corner count, it was Ireland's most positive performance of the five games so far, notably in turning defence into attack, exemplified by Errol Lutton.

"We are coming back up again", said the captain Alan Dowd, whose fellow Lisnagarvey veteran Robbie Taylor, is set to gain his 100th cap in Saturday's initial playoff against Wales or Switzerland for ninth to 12th places.

Ninth spot would still earn a ticket to the world cup qualifying tournament in Cairo in 2001.

Dutch midfielder Jacques Brinkman played his 313th international in yesterday's 3-3 draw with fellow semi-finalists England, equalling the world record number of caps held by Pargat Singh of India.