Ireland hosted its first international Wheelchair Rugby fixture, the European Championships Qualifiers, in February. Extensive training was in place in the build up to this event with at least 3 squad training sessions a week being held along with coaching weekends with the Great Brittan Captain Andy Barrow who was acting as Irish Coach for the event.

Ireland opened the Qualifiers against the Czech Republic. There is no love lost between these two teams. Games between Ireland and the Czech’s have always been tight, with the Irish being on the wrong end of the score line by one goal the last time they met. Wanting to make up for that along with the fact they were playing at home and in front of a supportive home crowd and RTE Cameras meant the Irish were in no need of motivational speeches in the build up to this game.

At the tip off, the Oliver Murphy Sports Centre was packed with onlookers all cheering for the team in green. Ireland won the tip off and scored straight away. From then on it was goal for goal. The Czech’s used their height advantage to get the ball into play while Ireland used their subs wisely to keep the Czechs guessing and of course the speed of Stephen Aylmer and Stephen Hickey to simply blast by the attempted blocks of the Czech players. By half time Ireland were up by three and, while the score line was tight, knew the game was theirs for the taking. By the time the final whistle blew Ireland had a five point lead of 48 - 43 and secured what was a huge win and a perfect start to the weekend.

The following morning Irelands next opponents were France. Having never lost to the French, Irish confidence was high but they knew that the French would still make them work for every goal. In the end though it was pretty straight forward for the Irish. They forced their game on the French and took full advantage of every error they made. The final score was 51 - 37 to Ireland. Having beaten France, Ireland now needed only one more win to guarantee a place at the European Championships. Once again they faced up to the Czech Republic. This game was a similar affair to their first game. With the Czech’s only having 2 strategies, one of which seemed to be trying to injure the Irish with some dangerous fouls. Again the Irish Team were able to maintain control of the game and won 40-36.

The final day of competition saw a much more relaxed Irish Team emerge onto the court. Qualification was now guaranteed to the European Championships in Denmark and with only the French left to play the focus now was putting on a good display of Wheelchair Rugby for everyone who had come to cheer them on. Starting out with their strongest line up Ireland went into an early three point lead and from then on rotated their bench. They went on to stretch the lead to 6 to win the game comfortably 51-45.

All the time, effort and commitment in the months leading up to the qualifiers was worth it as the Irish team won all their games and two of our players, Alan Lynch (Captain) and Stephen Aylmer received MVP in their class.

Huge thanks go out to all the team staff, Ulster Bank, everyone at IWA Sport, and all the fans for their wonderful support!!