It may have crept under the radar but Team Ireland has reached the Quarter-Finals of the World U21 Lacrosse Championships being held at the University of Limerick.
Three group stage wins against Germany, Jamaica and Latvia set up a Round of 16 game against the Czech Republic which they won 9-4 yesterday.
The quarter-final lineup now sees Australia against Japan, England against the Haudenosaunee Nation, The USA against Puerto Rico and Ireland against Canada.
The Ireland game takes place at 1 PM this afternoon.
It will be Ireland’s toughest task yet but that’s what has to be expected when it gets to this stage of a World Championship.
Canad’s Senior Men’s team is ranked number two in the world and their U20 team finished runners up the last time the tournament was played in 2019. Ireland were 8th at that point in time.
The seven other teams left in the tournament are all ranked within the Top 8 of the Men’s senior game with Ireland the outlier in 14 but the supportive home crowd could yet lift them to even greater achievement.
The games are being televised live to the United States and around the world and the reception for the organisation of the tournament has been universally exceptional.
Tourism Ireland came on board as a main commercial partner for the tournament where a World Festival of Lacrosse is also being staged.
This is the largest underage tournament the sport has put on and was originally scheduled to have taken place in 2020.
Over 500 athletes from 23 teams are playing 86 matches with the Final set for Saturday night.
