Ireland lose to Australia on World Cup return

Matthew Nelson and Ali Empey celebrate Ireland’s goal [Getty Images] Ireland's first Men's Hockey World Cup game since 2018 ended in defeat as Australia ran out 3-1 winners in Sunday's pool C opener in Belgium. The damage was done in the first half when the world ranked number three side scored a trio of penalty corner goals, two from Joel Rintala and another from Blake Govers. Ireland fought back- after the interval, scoring through Ali Empey and creating enough chances only to be denied by Australian goalkeeper Ash Thomas. "Did we show them too much respect in the first half? I do think that we had to respect them," said Ireland boss Mark Tumilty. "We've got to accept what our own preparation is, and our exposure in the last 13 months against the top nations in the world. "We didn't want to get caught with a lot of space behind us. So we set up in that way to try and deal with it. Did it work? It probably did. We didn't concede a field goal. They were clinical today from penalty corners. "I think we could have probably been braver with the ball at times." The first goal for Australia owed a lot to luck. Rintala's strike came back off the post and hit the unfortunate Irish goalkeeper Jamie Carr on the back and went in. There was nothing Carr could do about the second goal from Rintala or the deflection from the stick of Glovers as the Australians coasted into half-time. Ireland readjusted and pressed Australia higher up the pitch and they began to dominate the second half. Luke Witherow forced Thomas into an outstanding save before Empey converted a rebound from a penalty corner to give the Irish support hope of an unlikely comeback. Thomas then made a triple save in a scramble in front of his net with less than three minutes remaining as Ireland ran out of time. Positives for Ireland in second half Tumilty added that Ireland's forwards "came alive" in the second half. "We've taken the chance, keeper made a great save at 3-1, if that goes in, I think there was three minutes to go, it certainly could have been interesting, and we had a chance just before that," he added. "That's the difference at this level. It's just the top nations are clinical.” Ireland move on to face South Africa on Tuesday, which Tumilty admits is now a must-win game. "I think South Africa will be thinking the same. A win gives you an opportunity in your final game against Spain. "It's a game they'll have targeted, we'll have targeted, we know where the world rankings are. So yeah, it was always going to be one of those in the tournament that we really targeted. "But it was very positive in how the guys reacted today. It would have been easy, and I think in the past we possibly would have seen heads do down. So plenty of positives to take."