HOCKEY/Ireland - 1 Germany - 1: Irish coach Dave Passmore and his side capped a promising week's work in Belgium and Belfield. Yesterday's draw with Germany in the National Hockey Stadium in Belfield could so easily have been a win, but coaches look for performance and with that Passmore was happy

Ireland have never beaten Germany, currently the number one side in the world, at Test level and a win on the newly laid pitch would have been sweet, despite the fact that Ireland did meet a weakened side.

Effectively two German national sides were playing last week, one in Dublin, the other in Holland. Their final European squad will be a mix of both squads. Still, it would be churlish to diminish Ireland's play yesterday, where once again Brown, Stephen Butler, Jason Black and Justin Sherriff equalled anything Germany had to offer.

Butler, immense in midfield, was the trigger for Ireland's goal, his career 40th, which gave them a lead until late into the second half. On 18 minutes his drag flick from a corner went low to the backboard.

It was what Ireland deserved. Germany earned only four short corners in Saturday's and Sunday's matches, the first of which Ireland lost 2-1. Yesterday Ireland earned seven set-pieces. But when Sebastien Draghune stepped up for Germany's first corner of the day, he nailed it for 1-1.

There are just over six weeks to the European Championships in Rome, and Ireland will go into that tournament as the top-ranked side. A place in the final would bring promotion to the elite European Championship; a win would see Ireland into a World Cup qualifier next year.

IRELAND: C Henderson, J Black, D Smyth, P Brown (capt), K Burns, I Lewers, S Butler, A Barbour, G Shaw, P Maguire, G Elliott. Rolling subs: J Sherriff, T Cockram, M Black, M Raphael, W Bateman.

First Test: Ireland 1 (M Irwin), Germany 2.