Ireland's Hawkshaw insists all the pressure is on Belgium
Ireland women's hockey captain Sarah Hawkshaw believes her team has a psychological advantage heading into their World Cup match against Belgium. She argues that the pressure is entirely on the host nation, Belgium, to perform in front of their home crowd.
Why it matters
The match is a critical decider for Ireland's qualification hopes in the World Cup, making the mental state of the players a key factor in the outcome.
Ireland women's hockey captain Sarah Hawkshaw believes that all the pressure is on Belgium ahead of their crucial World Cup Pool C decider.
A 3-2 victory over New Zealand on Tuesday keeps Ireland's qualification hopes alive.
With the top two teams going through to the second round, Ireland must get a win against tournament hosts Belgium to avoid the 9th–16th classification games.
Ireland will be the underdogs going into the game in front of a partisan Belgian crowd in Wavre, and they narrowly lost two Pro League games 2-1 to them in Dublin last December.
However with the weight of expectation on the Belgians, Hawkshaw is confident that Ireland can get the result they need.
"The pressure isn't really on us, you know, so there's a lot of pressure on Belgium, they're at home," she said.
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