The majority of the players who will make up an unofficial Irish team in the New Zealand Quadrangular in March have been named. The team will not be an official Irish team as the Ireland Polocrosse Association were not able to commit to selecting and sending a squad when New Zealand recently invited them to. However, there are some Irish players currently based in Australia and New Zealand who have personally decided to form a team and compete under the name “The Fighting Irish”, with additional players flying out from Ireland to join them before the tournament.

The team has so far named the following players for the competition: Rona O’Dwyer, Joanne Lavery, Aimee Keogh, Dearbhla Murphy, Aaron Power and Eoin O’Donnell. Of these players three represented Ireland at the last World Cup (Rona, Joanne and Eoin) while two more (Aaron and Aimee) have represented Ireland at Under 21 level. The remaining two male squad members will be named shortly. The team have their own logo as well, a belligerent looking Leprechaun in the on-guard position.

The Irish Polocrosse Association issued the following statement today to clarify the situation, after initial reports suggested that the team would be an official Ireland team, “Unfortunately the Irish Polocrosse Association were unable to commit to sending a team, however we are aware that a number of Irish players, some of whom are IPA members, have been personally invited to participate in the Quad Series in New Zealand in March of this year.The IPA would like to take this opportunity to wish this squad every luck in the series and to also extend our best wishes for a very successful Quad Series to New Zealand.”

The team will compete in the Quadrangular at Turangi from the 28th to the 31st of March against teams from New Zealand itself, Australia and Zambia.