Ireland miss out in first attempt to make World Cup

Ireland were beaten 1-0 by Australia in the semi-finals at the World Cup qualification tournament in Santiago.

A win would have secured a place at the World Cup but they will now need to beat Japan in the third place play-off on Sunday to reach the finals.

Japan conceded a late equaliser to Chile and then lost in a shootout.

The only goal came just before half-time when Claire Colwill converted a penalty stroke as Australia went on to clinch a place at the World Cup in August in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Ireland will be disappointed in their performance, and they never reached the same heights that saw them come through the Pool stages with three wins, or indeed that had seen them beat Australia 4-1 last month in the FIH Pro League.

Australia started brightly and Irish goalkeeper Lizzie Murphy was called into action, making a save from the first penalty corner of the game.

Australia then had a golden opportunity to open the scoring when Mia Jennings was penalised for impeding Mihaylia Howell in the process of shooting.

A penalty stroke was awarded but Murphy made an outstanding save low down to her left to deny Tatum Stewart.

Australia continued to pressurise in the second quarter and were awarded another penalty stroke when Roisin Upton was judged to have pushed an attacker in the back.

Replays showed that had Ireland referred the decision, it may have been overturned as it looked like the Australian player had slipped.

However they chose not to and this time Murphy was unable to stop the effort from Colwill that went in off the post.

Niamh Carey had Ireland’s best chance of the game in the third quarter but her reverse stick shot was easily saved and in truth Ireland were struggling to create many meaningful circle entries.

They had a couple of penalty corners in the final two minutes but didn’t manage a shot on target and Australia, in the end, comfortably saw out the game to claim their place in the World Cup.

Ireland will at least go into the game against Japan on Sunday (21:00 BST) with the psychological advantage after beating them 2-1 in the Pool stages of the tournament last week.