Pool A closes with a hard night against the Haudenosaunee as Ireland head into the placement round
Oi Stadium, Tokyo. Ireland's group stage at the Nissin Foods 2026 World Lacrosse Women's Championship ended on Tuesday evening with a 13-7 defeat to the Haudenosaunee, closing out Pool A with one win from three and sending Eileen Ferry's side into the 9-12 classification bracket.
It was a group that asked Ireland three completely different questions in four days.
Tuesday: the Haudenosaunee
With second place in the pool on the line, Ireland met the Haudenosaunee under lights on Field 2 and lost 13-7.
The Haudenosaunee went on to beat England in the quarter-final and reach the semi-finals, eventually finishing fourth after a bronze medal game against Israel. On the evidence of the rest of their tournament, Ireland ran into a side building towards its best week in some time.
Note: World Lacrosse has not yet published play-by-play or box score data for this fixture, so individual scorers and match statistics are not available at time of writing.
Third place in the group sent Ireland into the 9-12 classification bracket, with a meeting against Argentina on Thursday and a placement game to follow on Saturday.
The group left Ireland with a clear picture of themselves. The draw circle was a genuine weapon across all three matches. Ryan and Welch had established themselves as the primary scoring threats. Pfaff had been busy and had stood up.
Fixtures Ireland 5-18 United States | Chinese Taipei 9-13 Ireland | Haudenosaunee 13-7 Ireland