Player Interviews
Arlene Boyles - Pegasus

Pegasus taliswoman Arlene Boyles is hoping her side have learned their lessons from the inaugural ESB IHL finals weekend.
Hot on the heels of a high intensity European club campaign, the Belfast side lacked a clinical edge against Hermes, left 11 out of 12 penalty corner opportunities slip and ultimately were eliminated 4-1, inspired by Nikki Evans stunning second half hat-trick.

The recently crowned Ulster champions, though, have had an even busier run-in to the competition this year – completing eight league matches in the past three weeks to retain the Premier title – but Boyles believes her side have managed the situation far better this time round.

“I think there is a sense of making things right this year. A lot of us have been waiting to get back to this part of the season and into this competition.

“We’re very conscious of not making the same mistakes again. We came into the ESB IHL finals last year off the back of a European campaign, there were a lot of tired players. We’ve rotated our players a lot better this year, certainly in the last eight games.”
That backlog came as a result of January and February’s cold snap which obliterated most of the domestic programme in Ulster.
The knock-on effect was less availability of key player and drag-flick artist Michelle Harvey, adding to the already imposing task of replacing Jill Orbinson, Katherine Maybin, Lynsey Mallon and Belgium-bound Alex Speers.

Kirsty McCollum’s return and the emergence of Jenny Kyle have offset some of those departures and Boyles is proud with how the squad has rallied in their absence.

And with the quickfire nature of the fixtures means the side is in rude health.
“Due to the wonderful weather we’ve been having this year it’s been pretty much half our season in the last three weeks so saying we’re ready to go is a bit of understatement.

“It’s been incredibly difficult but the same for every club up north. It was an upper disaster up here, simply closing down for eight weeks and had a massive effect on our training as well which meant we had to train indoors – only a few of us remembered how to play indoor hockey! “It had the knock-on effect to be playing on Wednesday evenings when we would have liked to be training. We were trying to fix things in games while playing which is never ideal. Match practice is something you aim for at this time of the season, though, so it could work slightly in our favour.”

As for the challenge posed by Cork Harlequins on Saturday (Grange Road, 12.30pm), due to the distances separating the sides, Pegasus have yet to get direct sightings of the Munster champions but sources have aided their preparation.
And Boyles is under no illusions as to the task facing her side.

“Like any Munster side, they’ll be difficult to get past, disciplined in the way they play, run for every ball and challenge to the best of their ability. Over the years, all of us have played a Munster side that we’ve struggled against and I don’t think Saturday will be any different.

“We’ve worked very hard in this campaign and beaten Hermes and Loreto. Everyone seems to be talking about Railway at the minute but we need to get past Cork.

“We have to be positive about the situation, we’re in the position where we’ve done all your training, corners and routines and now it’s all down to 70 minutes. It’s a very easy team-talk, run until you fall over and Sunday speaks for itself.

“We classify ourselves as very lucky to be here, representing Ulster in All-Ireland league finals and we just want to get to Sunday and pit ourselves against the team that deserve to be there as well.”

Interview conducted by Stephen Findlater, Freelance Journalist on behalf of the IHA