The bonus for winning remains unclear but the implications for the loser of Ireland’s Women’s Hockey World Cup clash with New Zealand on Tuesday are all too obvious.

Ireland started with a 3-2 loss to Spain, New Zealand went down 5-2 to Belgium – so it’s back to the Belfius Hockey Arena for both at 11am to try and keep their main tournament hopes alive, although there will be a classification series for those sides who don’t finish in the top two in their group.

A draw will keep both alive, just.

Irish captain Sarah Hawkshaw cut a dejected figure after the loss to Spain but, speaking to RTÉ Sport, she was quick to point out that the Black Sticks were also fighting for survival.

“Same for them (the pressure), they’d a loss their first game so it’s going to be a real battle on Tuesday,” she said.

“We’ll learn (from the Spain loss), we’ll recover then we’ll be focusing on what we have, which will be a good fight on Tuesday against New Zealand.”

The sides have enjoyed tight battles in recent times. Early last year in the Nations Cup, Ireland were 1-0 winners in the group before New Zealand got the better of them in the final on penalties – Hawkshaw one of only two players to convert on that occasion.

The previous year, Ireland secured their first-ever win against New Zealand in their 10th attempt.

Hawkshaw hopes that can learn enough in time from the Spanish defeat, and she feels there is plenty to improve on.

“We knew the game would come down to corners and set-plays, as it often does against Spain. And it showed, they got the better side of it.

Ireland made a gallant effort in their opening World Cup game against Spain but the Redsticks ran out 3-2 winners.

Catch highlights from the game below and follow all the games from the men’s and women’s FIH Hockey World Cup on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. pic.twitter.com/0FmsbBycFc

— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 16, 2026

“We had a poor second quarter, we’d be disappointed with that second quarter, but for the rest of the game we had a lot of dominance, we held the ball well, we gave ourselves opportunities and unfortunate to come away with the loss.”

While a defeat is never to be welcomed, the Spain game did give Ireland a good work-out tactically for what is likely to be a similar opposition game-plan in their second Pool B clash in Wavre.

“We knew they’d play a lot of man-on-man structure, it’s a style they play along with the likes of New Zealand.

“It’s something we’ve worked on a lot, and ways to challenge it.

“It’s probably a thing we expected, they (Spain) got a lot of attacks down their right-hand side which we probably didn’t manage enough but we’ll take the learnings into the next game.”

Irish head coach Gareth Grundie was pleased with what he saw in the second half against Spain with the side 1-0 down at that stage after a poor second-quarter showing.

“Going into that second half, we just said we had to have a bit more intent about ourselves,” he said.

“We got ourselves back into the game, just a little bit disappointing not to be able to seal it.

“Positive second half, obviously nothing from the game – we’ll take that and make sure we’re well prepared going into Tuesday against New Zealand,” Grundie added.

Watch Ireland v New Zealand in the Women’s Hockey World Cup on Tuesday from 9.45am on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app