Ireland hammered by South Korea

Nikki Symmons put Ireland ahead against South Korea

Ireland's women's hockey team were comfortably beaten 5-1 by hosts South Korea in the Olympic qualifying tournament on Thursday.

Nikki Symmons put Ireland ahead in the 12th minute but the number one seeds responded with three quick goals to lead 3-1 at the interval.

Symmons went close to pulling a goal back for the Irish but the Koreans hit two late goals to extend their lead.

Ireland need to beat Italy on Saturday to keep their Olympic hopes alive.

"We had to try something different today," said Ireland coach Gene Muller.

"It was always going to be difficult to beat Korea twice in a tournament and today we went out today to learn, we tried some theories and we will hopefully have a another bite against the Koreans.

"Italy is a critical game and we always knew it would come down to the game against Italy which is basically our semi-final and that is what we prepared for."

Ireland defeated Malaysia (3-0), Canada (2-0) and Uruguay (1-0) in their opening three games.

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