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Planet Field Hockey

By Mary Hannigan

Back home in Cork after the most eventful two weeks of her hockey career, rounded off by a weekend she's unlikely to forget, Irish captain Rachael Kohler reflected on her team's superb and richly deserved fifth-place finish at the World Cup Qualifier in France, one that earned them a place in next year's finals in Australia, and the controversy that surrounded Lithuania's 'withdrawal' from the tournament.

The Lithuanians refused to turn up for a replay of their penalty strokes shoot-out against Ireland on Sunday, ordered after an Irish protest against the running of Saturday's competition was deemed "valid", and were then adjudged by the tournament director to have withdrawn from the competition.

"Initially my heart went out to Lithuania," said Kohler, "I can't even imagine how we would have felt if we were in the same position. But, in hindsight, had we been in their position, there is no question that we would have turned up for the retaken strokes.

"Despite the fact that none of it was their fault they shot themselves in the foot by not turning up and giving themselves a second chance."

"The way our management dealt with the situation was very professional and by the book. If we had won the penalty shoot-out Lithuania would have been fully within their rights to appeal and we would have had to live with that.

It's very, very unfortunate that they had to miss out but the rules are the rules." Kohler, who will play in her second World Cup finals in Perth next year, having appeared as a 19-year-old in the 1994 tournament in Dublin, found herself at the centre of Saturday's fiasco, correctly advising the umpires on how the shoot-out should have been run. Her advice was ignored.

"For as long as I've played hockey the order has changed after the first 10 strokes in a shoot-out. After the first 10 on Saturday I checked with one of the umpires if Lithuania should go next and she said 'I don't know'.

She looked at the other umpire and she said 'I don't know either', so they checked with the tournament director's bench - they came back and said the order would stay the same. They got it wrong."

"I'm sure to some sporting people we look like bad losers but they must understand the rules are there to be upheld, I really hope people see that.

The manner in which we qualified certainly doesn't have the same gloss as if we'd done it another way but beating Scotland to finish fifth in the tournament should remove any doubts about us. It was a remarkable achievement by the team."

Meanwhile Joan McCloy, president of the Irish Hockey Association, extended her sympathy to the Lithuanians but stood by the decision to appeal the outcome of Saturday's shoot-out which Ireland 'lost' 5-6.

"The manner in which we ended up qualifying is not one Irish hockey would have wished for and I can only say how sorry I am for the Lithuanians - and, indeed, for our own players who were caught up in it all. But the whole situation was created by incompetence on the table during the match."

"We've seen some of the other things that happened to us in the tournament and the actions of some officials who, in many ways, ruined our chances of finishing in the top four," said McCloy.

"At the end of the day you have to play by the rules and we have done that." The International Hockey Federation, meanwhile, is still waiting to hear if Lithuania intends acting on its threat to take it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.

The Lithuanians' last action before leaving Amiens on Sunday night was to remove Ireland's name from the fifth place slot on the 'final placings' board at the ground and replace it with their own.

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