The Irish Under-21 side played out a hard-fought three game series with England at Stormont over the weekend, drawing one and losing the other by the minimum.

On Thursday, with a dozen of the Irish senior women’s panel in attendance, they tied 1-1 with Siofra O’Brien scoring a cracking equaliser later in the day.

Saturday’s game two and game three on Sunday both finished 1-0 to the visitors to Stormont. It finished off one of the busiest Under-21/23 developmental programmes of recent times, playing 18 games over the summer and giving a taste of the demands of international hockey to up to 30 players.

In the wake of the first Under-21 tie, Megan Frazer spoke to Belfast Telegraph’s John Flack about the injury that forced her to miss the World Cup final.

She said: “I desperately wanted to play but the medics told me it would have been foolish to do so. I was absolutely gutted but, with hindsight, I might have done further damage to my knee which was still a bit sore, but at least I still have a silver medal round my neck.”

Lost our last match against England 0-1. Overall a good series with 28 players used, some core players rested and some great performances from some of the younger @JuniorGreenArmy @IrelandJAG players. Thanks to @EugeneFCollins & @statsports for their support pic.twitter.com/H7s0ijZng6

— JuniorGreenArmy (@JuniorGreenArmy) August 12, 2018