The Cashel woman played a quarter of the 3-1 loss at Bisham Abbey and she will likely line out again on Wednesday morning in game two of the scheduled four uncapped fixtures.

Britain went 2-0 up courtesy of a couple of penalty corners but Ireland came more into the game in the third quarter with Anna O’Flanagan’s goal a just reward for their fightback.

It came amid a melee in the circle created by Katie Mullan’s powerful pass into the danger zone as Ireland ramped up the pressure with Shirley McCay’s interceptions from the back a catalyst while Sarah Hawkshaw was busy in an attacking midfield role.

The hosts, however, made the result safe with a third corner goal. The two sides meet again at the same venue on Wednesday with further matches on Friday and Sunday.

It comes hot on the heels of March’s shared series at Queen’s University and was organised to replace a cancelled warm-weather camp in Malaysia.

And captain Katie Mullan is happy to have something on the agenda having had her bags packed for that previous plan.

“We’re just excited to play international hockey and hit the pace we need to prepare for the Europeans [in June] and the Olympics,” she said. “In a perfect world, playing the same team is not how you would want it but we are grateful to get the games and it is very good preparation to focus on ourselves.

“Every nation has their struggles in terms of best preparing getting out of Covid. You can see how much quicker Australia and New Zealand got out of lockdown and were able to train.

“In one sense, they got a couple of steps ahead. Now, they are not getting games which we are.

“Every team has their own personal journey and it’s going to be whoever manages those ups and downs best who will be the successful teams this summer, especially so for the European teams who have to go and peak twice with this being a qualifier for the World Cup.”