Ireland head coach James Weldon is hopeful that his side can pull off an upset win over Latvia when their FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 qualification campaign draws to a close at the National Basketball Arena in Dublin on Sunday evening.
Ireland prop up Group E after four qualifiers, with this week’s double-header beginning with a daunting trip to Chalon-sur-Saone to face France.
A winless run through the qualifiers has to be contextualised by the calibre and ranking of the opposition Ireland have faced.
Weldon’s charges are 85th in the FIBA rankings, perched between Albania and Armenia, while group rivals Israel occupy 47th place, Latvia sit in 28th, and high-flying Olympic silver medallists France are the third-best side in the world.
Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, Weldon adopted a realistic approach to their upcoming away day before the clash with Latvia.
"We’ve a lot of experienced players, who have been through the mill before, so we’ve got up to speed pretty quickly," the head coach said of his team’s preparations.
"It’s obviously pretty tough to get up to the speed of France, but we'll do our best to try and compete and set ourselves achievable targets in that game.
"We're very much looking forward to Sunday as well, and we're very excited about playing at home, and no better place to get you geared up for that than playing the Olympics silver medallists.
France ran out 100-48 victors when the teams met in Dublin in Ireland's second game of the qualifying campaign, but the gulf in class wasn’t too apparent early on, and Weldon hopes to build on the promise from the initial skirmishes in that contest.
"I suppose November 12 months ago, we were maybe three, four minutes into the second quarter and we were in the game," he said.
"It was a two or three-point game and that was probably some of the best basketball we played in the last couple of years.
"It was an 18-7 seven game at the end of the first quarter.
"Our aim is to push on and get as close to half-time and and keep ourselves in the game and just set ourselves small, winnable goals that we feel we can achieve, and to take those into the game and on Sunday.
"It’s very much about getting minutes into the legs at this level. I was saying earlier that this is probably only the second or third time where we've actually had a double-game.
"There were different circumstances, with the other qualifying champions, that the groups ended up with teams opting out or fixtures being cancelled.
"There were a lot of standalone fixtures and with so many of our players playing domestic basketball and with a semi-professional league, it's very hard to get up to the pace for a one-off game, whereas we've always seemed to play better in the second game."
Latvia recorded an 85-53 when the sides met in Riga in November, but home advantage and return of captain Edel Thornton and Claire Melia to the Ireland line-up augurs well for the denouement in Ireland’s campaign.
"The office has informed me that it’s a sell-out, which is fantastic, and it's always a special atmosphere in the arena on EuroBasket windows," the head coach said.
"Latvia are well ahead of us in ranking points and they beat us pretty comprehensively in November, but with the likes of Adele and Claire back, that really bolsters up the squad.
"I feel we’re in a very good position to go out and compete, we just need to go out and manage our emotions and deal with Thursday as best as possible and take the positives from Thursday and take them into Sunday."
A change to the structure of qualifying means Ireland won’t have to face the behemoths of the game when the next EuroBasket qualifying campaign comes around, at least initially.
Wins, and the confidence they instill, should be easier to come by.
"There's going to be a slight change to the system in the next qualifying campaign," Weldon explained.
"So the top-seeded teams, the likes of France, and the likes of Spain, Serbia, Belgium, they won't be in the first part of the qualifying campaign.
"You’ll probably have more competitive games and that will definitely bring players along again and give them more realistic chances of winning games."
Ireland’s senior basketball teams were mothballed during the last recession, with the women’s team only returning to action in the 2016 FIBA Women's European Championship for Small Countries, where they finished second behind Malta.
The progress made since those recessionary times is something that fills the head coach with a degree of pride, and he added: "We didn’t have a team for so long. We were out of the loop completely and, we talked about this at the team meeting, it’s only three years ago we were in the Small Nations, playing teams like Andorra and Cyprus.
"We joked about this being the battle of the silver medallists - we won the silver medal in the Small Nations and now we’re playing the Olympic silver medallists in France.
"But it's just a great testament to the players and the federation for getting behind them.
"We’re now competing with these types of teams and we’re competing with them for a quarter. Can we push it on a bit more? Hopefully.
Weldon was somewhat circumspect on his own future as the Ireland head coach as the campaign concludes, saying: "I’m very happy with the progress the team has made over the last couple of years, even going back to the Small Countries days.
"It’s a decision for Basketball Ireland. We have an elite performance committee made up of very good basketball people and I’m sure they’ll make the decision they feel is best for the team.
"But I’ll have to talk to my wife. We’ve two small kids at home. It’s an intense commitment and there’s a lot to it outside of the actual windows, keeping in contact with the players and giving them support outside of the group setting, but I thoroughly enjoy it."
Ireland Squad:
Abigail Rafferty (Oakland Wolves, England), Áine O'Connor, Hazel Finn, Sorcha Tiernan (FloMAX Liffey Celtics), Amy Dooley (Midlands Park Portlaoise Panthers), Bridget Herlihy (Unicaja Baloncesto, Spain), Lauryn Homan, Edel Thornton (Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell), Claire Melia (University of Ferrol, Spain), Kate Hickey, Sarah Hickey (SETU Waterford Wildcats), Michelle Clarke (Killester).
FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers:
Thursday, 6 February
France v Ireland, 1815
Sunday, 9 February
Ireland v Latvia, 1700
