The Irish men's lacrosse team came up against a major hurdle today when it faced off against a very high calibre Israel team in the next round of the World Lacrosse Championships.

The Irish team has met the Israel team on a number of occasions recently. There was a scrimmage between them just before the start of the 2012 European Championships where Israel prevailed, and then Ireland got revenge when the two teams met at a training camp on Long Island, New York over the St. Patrick's Day weekend where Ireland won by a single goal.

The stakes were highest in this latest meeting as it would determine which team would advance in the world championships tournament. Ireland came hard out of the traps and scored the first goal of the game through Tom Burke. But Israel was quick to respond and rattled off 5 unanswered goals to make it 1-5 at the end of the first quarter.

Ireland had an outstanding second quarter though. Riley scored three goals, and Burke and Gillis each had one, while Israel managed four goals of its own. This left the score at 6-9 to Israel at half-time. Israel turned up the heat though in the third quarter, where a combination of penalties by Ireland and the goal-scoring threat of Israel's Lee Coppersmith in particular put the game away for Israel.

The final score was 19-8 in favour of Israel. Riley led the Irish scorers with 4 goals, Burke and Gillis each had 2, while Kris Prior bagged a goal. Connor Sweeney was outstanding in net as he faced a barrage of shots, earning him The Physio Company Game MVP. Special mention also goes to Patrick Ferry who gave everything to the team and had an outstanding performance. Ireland now face the Czech Republic at 9.30pm Irish time and continue to play for a high final ranking in the tournament.

Tom Beary