With the U19 European Championships in Krakow done and dusted, the junior international focus for Ireland switches this weekend to the U13 and U15 Five Nations in Dublin.
Sixteen players will feature for Michael Conroy’s Irish teams in their matches against England, France, Scotland and Wales at the three-day event being hosted by Sutton LTC.
The U13 team includes both Junior Nationals champions, Harry Knox of Celtic and Limerick’s Ruby Carroll, the Squash Ireland Junior Player of the Year.
Also featuring are Belfast’s Josh Archer, Sutton’s Eoin O’Brien, Mount Pleasant duo Ridit Thapar and Aurora McDonnell, and Celtic pair Caoimhe English and Daisy Morrissey.
Both Junior Nationals champions, Mount Pleasant’s Michael Lai and Belfast’s Gabby Curran, will feature in the U15 event. They are joined by Mount Pleasant trio Leonid Ivlenkov, Raghad Aboelala and Zoë Nyhan, Celtic’s Jamie Morrissey, and Sutton duo John Quigley and Saibh Darcy.
What they face is no easy task, especially as England have won both U13 and U15 titles for the last six consecutive editions of the Five Nations, including last year’s event in Nantes.
Acknowledging this English dominance, Squash Ireland junior development coach Conroy said: “I was involved in it last year, and we didn’t do too well.
“England are always generally very strong. It’s been a long time since anyone has beaten them at junior level. They always seem to pull away from all the rest of the countries in this competition.”
That said, Conroy doesn’t in the slightest downplay the level of promising talent representing Ireland this weekend, with plenty of title-winning names to get excited about.
He added that playing at home is an advantage, not only for the three Sutton players but also for everyone else in the squad as they are very familiar with the set-up at the north Dublin club.
“There is a lot of talent, and home advantage is a good thing, especially for the players from Sutton, John Quigley, Saibh Darcy and Eoin O’Brien, and everyone else is well used to playing in Sutton.
“It makes a big difference when you are used to playing on the courts. Squash courts are funny. People think they are all the same, but even at my own club at Leinster CC, it’s always a massive advantage.
“You always seem to play your best when you are playing on your own ground instead of travelling across the road to Fitzwilliam, even though you played there before. It’s a big advantage for our Irish teams that they are so used to playing at Sutton.”
Sifting through the names of the players chosen to wear the green, Conroy added: “The likes of Michael Lai, Jamie Morrissey, when they play competitions in Europe, they always do well, and Jamie won the Irish Open U13 final at Sutton last November. He has moved up to U15 and is the No.3 for the team.
“You look at Ruby Carroll, who hasn’t lost a junior match in something like over a year (at home), and she has gone up and won matches at Senior Nationals level and is still U13. She played the women’s A section at Fitzwilliam in February, which is a massive jump.
“Going through the list, they are all pretty strong. Ruby Carroll and Daisy Morrissey played in the Five Nations last year, and it was tough for them as it was their first year.
“They were playing a year up, but now they have all got that experience and are a year older, a year stronger – that makes a massive difference when you are a junior.
“Harry Knox is No.1 BU13s, and there is also Eoin O’Brien. Harry won the Spanish and Czech Junior Opens and was unlucky in the German Open. As a No.1, he is ideal because he has played a good few European competitions and every time he goes there he gets to between the quarters and the final.
“I don’t think in any of the ones that I have looked at that he has gone out in an early round, so he is ideal. Eoin O’Brien is another, and so is Josh Archer.
“Those three all played U13 last year in France, like the girls. So, five out of the eight were all involved in the Five Nations last year, and that is massive.”
Further fuelling the feel-good factor surrounding Ireland’s U13s and U15s is that they are arriving at the Five Nations near the end of Squash Ireland’s maiden year for its Junior Performance Academy, the structure formulated to provide more regular coaching and to better keep tabs on the development of players.
“Previously, I used to take the Ireland 17s and generally what used to happen was you’d get a couple of squads leading up to it, but that would be it for the year,” he said about national team preparations.
“This time round, we are with the players a lot more. I see them more regularly, and there have been a lot more groups leading up to this Five Nations. It’s more consistent over the year with the camps and all that sort of stuff.
“Apart from the additional coaching, I have seen them play a lot more. Previously, with the players on Irish teams, I would only see them play at Nationals or an Irish Open, but now that I have been sent away, I have watched them play at the German Open, the Danish Open, watched them play a lot more competitions overseas and here at home, interpros, you name it.
“I’m travelling with them a lot more, and that makes a big difference because you can bring it back then to squads, plan out squads around it and see what they need to work on because you are physically watching them beside the court at tournaments for three, four days. That’s huge, really.”
The value of this strengthened rapport can’t be underestimated. “It’s good, you get to know the kids and the parents a lot more. You’re not just getting on a plane with them, and they don’t really know who you are.
“They know you a lot more personally; you’ve sat down with them and gone through the stuff with them in detail, whereas before it was hard to talk in detail because you only had a limited amount of time.
“It’s much more beneficial this time round than the three previous years I did U17. I can see the difference, and I suppose the results are coming in; we’re getting much better results at European level, and hopefully we can pick up a few good results now at the Five Nations. We have a much better chance in Dublin than last year.”
