The winter break across Europe will slowly see the Irish senior men's team return to full training together after players were spread across Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and England for the past four months.

For the Belgium-based players, their season reached its mid-point last Sunday with three subsequently named in Craig Fulton's Irish squad for a midweek series against France.

These include Conor Harte, of Racing Bruxelles, along with Shane O'Donoghue and Kyle Good who play with Antwerp's Dragons.

Last week, the two clubs drew 3-3 with another Irishman, Alan Sothern, putting Racing in the driving street only for Dragons to score with the last play of the game.

It means the respective clubs finish in mid-table in one of Europe’s elite competitions with Dragons sitting in fifth place, four points off a fourth place which would earn a playoff shot. Racing are seventh.