 Igasan set New Zealand on road to victory over Ireland |
Ireland were brought down to earth with a bump at the women's Olympic qualifying tournament when they lost 5-1 to hosts New Zealand in Auckland. An opening-day win over Ukraine had raised Irish hopes of making Athens this summer but they struggled against a physical Kiwi side.
Lizzy Igasan and Kayla Sharland put the Blacksticks 2-0 up before Jenny McDonough clawed one back.
But a Jamiee Provan brace plus one from Niniwa Roberts-Lang sealed the match.
The result leaves Ireland third in Pool A - the top two automatically qualify for Athens while third and fourth face two play-offs.
But they have played a match more than the teams either side of them - Germany and Great Britain - and the Germans are next up on Tuesday.
"It was very well played by New Zealand but I was quite disappointed with our own performance," said Ireland's coach Riet Kuper.
 Rika Komazawa helps fire Japan to the top of Pool B |
"I thought we could trouble them more than we did. "I thought our preparation was good enough as this was the first time we had played New Zealand in nearly 20 years (the 4-3 defeat at the 1986 World Cup was the last occasion) so their style was new to us."
Elsewhere, Japan clocked up their second win when they defeated the USA 3-1 to top Pool B .
Alexandra Kollmar scored both goals for Germany in their 2-1 Pool A win over bottom-placed Ukraine.
Germany are now second behind New Zealand in their group.
And Spain brushed past Russia 3-0 to go second in Pool B - but the result leaves their opponents at the foot of that table.
MMIX
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