WJUC 2012 Dublin – Day 2 – first full day of the tournament in the Rio of the North

In Featured Events, WJUC 2012 News by WFDF

Monday was the first full day of the tournament after the excitement of the opening ceremony and show case match on Sunday. Dublin, locally known as “the Rio of the north”, did not disappoint on the weather front putting on at least 20 minutes of blistering sunshine (mixed in with the torrential rain and blustery conditions that will test the players over the next couple of days). As with any tournament on the World stage, the first day of competition can be a day of upsets – was this to be another?

In the Junior Open division, three of the four pools had matches between the top two seeded teams in the pools. First up, in Pool A, Australia looked to hit the ground running against a strong and athletic USA. In wet and windy conditions, Australia felt that they were in with a shot in the opening exchanges, before the Americans stamped their authority on the proceedings and ran out comfortable winners. The top seed in Pool C, Germany, maintained their 100 % record going into day 2 as did Canada in Pool B.

However, there were more pressing matters in Pool B for the local fans – the hosts, Ireland, took on local rivals Great Britain. Ireland came out firing, determined to use their strong long shots and athletic receivers to put GB under pressure. Its was a tense opening, but GB went a few breaks up in the first half and never looked back. Reflecting after the match, GB captain Andy Mitchell noted that the Irish were ‘not afraid to stick it and they took down some huge grabs…We are feeling good, looking to continue strongly’ Vice-captain Jared Bradley echoed these sentiments saying it was a ‘fantastic’ start to the tournament, adding ‘this was probably the best spirited game I’ve ever played in’ – something that we are all keen to continue through the week. Irish skipper, his name is Alan Fitzpatrick, was generally happy with his teams performance, particularly that ‘the lads came out stronger than we did last year’. He also thanked all the locals for ‘their great support!’. Colombia continued their good run of form with another victory today to remain undefeated.

In the Junior Women’s division, Colombia started the defense of their title with games against Ireland and Japan – winning these games with room to spare. Today they will face what will likely be their toughest challenge in the initial pools when they take on Germany, another undefeated team in this pool. Pool B also has two undefeated teams – Canada and Italy – who meet today to sort out that top of the table tussle. In Pool C, Team USA started strongly going 2 and 0, the only team in this pool with a perfect record. Australia, currently lying second in the pool be looking to break that winning streak when they meet first thing today.

In the U17 Open division, reigning champions Germany started strongly and look like the team to beat. After comfortably seeing off Switzerland in their opener, they had a tougher challenge from neighbouring Austria. In this hard fought battle, the Germans turned up the heat around half and kept up the pace to the end. Today will no doubt be another hard fought day of Ultimate as both the Junior Open and and U17 Open initial pool stages draw to a close and the Junior Women will be battling for victories before their pool stage finishes Wednesday.

With material from the official newsletter – editors Mark Earley and Keith Hodgson – photos courtesy of Mark Earley, Dennis Marsh and Jose Pires . Please find more information under: www.wjuc2012.com .