Joyce delighted with Ireland's progress
Ed Joyce has hailed Ireland's "brilliant" performances at the World Cup
AFP
21-Mar-2007
![]() |
![]()
|
Ed Joyce has hailed Ireland's "brilliant" performances at the World Cup and admits the prospect of them playing England, his adopted nation, in the Super Eight stage, would be "quite a spectacle".
Joyce was born in Dublin but made his one-day debut for England against Ireland in 2006. He had played an important role in Ireland's qualifying for the World Cup by scoring two hundreds and two fifities in the 2005 ICC Trophy, but an ambition to play at the highest possible level led Joyce to qualify for England because Ireland did not have Test-match status.
After Ireland's tie against Zimbabwe in their first match of the World Cup and the shock three-wicket victory over Pakistan, they are on the brink of qualification for the Super Eights. "It was brilliant," Joyce said. "My big hope for Ireland coming into this tournament was that they would do themselves justice.
"It's hard, your first tournament, you might get a bit over-awed by it. Trent Johnston, their captain has been brilliant. He's told them what to expect and how to go about things. They've done that really well. They'd never have thought they beat Pakistan, they knew they had a chance.
"They've beaten the West Indies in the last few years. The Zimbabwe game was their big one. Now they've got three points and look like going through to the Super Eights which is brilliant."
Should both England and Ireland make it through to the second stage they will start their Super Eight campaign against one another in Guyana on March 30. "That was my first game," Joyce said, recalling his England debut.
"It was a bit of a strange one for me. It will be an interesting contest if they [Ireland] get through to that stage. It will be a big day. A lot of Irish people have travelled over. I don't think they expected to get through to the Super Eights. They'll probably all have to take another month off and get out there. It will be a good day.
"The English fans and Irish fans will get on pretty well. It will be quite a spectacle. My brother is in Jamaica watching them and he'd said they'd taken over Kingston and the Jamaicans love them which is typical of Irish fans."