Mission Accomplished: Get up to game tempo - Check, play the best in the world - Check, lessons learned - Check, improvments made - Check, and roster set ahead of Salou - Check.
Ireland’s Senior Men’s Sixes team lost all three games at the 2026 Atlas Cup in Sparks, Maryland, and left with a much clearer picture of itself than it had on Friday. The weekend was the final preparation block for the European Sixes Lacrosse Championships in Salou, Spain, which run from 10 to 18 November, and the first time this squad had competed together in the Sixes discipline.
The opposition was the strongest available. The United States, Canada and the Haudenosaunee Nationals all arrived from the Pan-American Sixes Championships in Oshawa earlier this month, where each secured its place at the 2027 World Lacrosse Sixes Championship in Colorado Springs. The United States beat Canada in that final. Ireland went to Maryland to improve across three games against the best in the world and to settle the roster for Spain.
Friday: United States 35, Ireland 14
The United States led 8-3 after the first quarter and 16-4 at half time. The game ran away from Ireland in the second quarter, where seven of Ireland’s 14 turnovers came. The shot count was closer than the score suggests, 46 to 43, but Ireland put 28 on target to the Americans’ 38 and made three saves at the other end.
Ronan Jacoby scored three and assisted one. Conor Foley scored three, two of them on the extra man in the third quarter from Matt Duncan, who finished with three assists. Tom Burke and Kevin Lynch scored two each. Michael Lynch, Boomer Staunton, Corey McMahon and Patrick Brosnan added one apiece. Ireland lost the fourth quarter 9-6, the closest period of the night.
Jacoby said afterwards that the mistakes were fixable and that the staff had already corrected several of them in Saturday morning’s walkthrough.
Saturday: Haudenosaunee Nationals 21, Ireland 14
The improvement showed inside twenty-four hours. Ireland fell behind 6-1 in the first quarter, won the second quarter 7-5 and went to half time at 11-8. Joe Walsh made 14 saves. Ireland won 12 ground balls to the Nationals’ 15 and the turnover count dropped to 12 against 11.
Jacoby scored four. Corey McMahon scored three in the second quarter. Boomer Staunton scored two and assisted one, Daniel Clarke and Michael Lynch scored two each, Patrick Brosnan scored once, and Patrick Corbett set up two goals. Jameson Bucktooth scored six for the Nationals and Tayoni Galante five.
Sunday: Canada 24, Ireland 16
The final game was the best of the three. Ireland went level at 3-3 in the first quarter and again at 6-6 early in the second before Canada pulled clear to 11-7 at half time. Ireland matched Canada 5-5 in the third quarter and trailed 16-12 going into the last. Canada, who won every faceoff and all three games on the weekend, closed it out 8-4.
Boomer Staunton scored six from nine shots. Patrick Corbett scored three, two of them behind the back, and assisted another. Matt Duncan scored two and assisted two. Conor Foley scored one and assisted two, and Ryan Clarke, Daniel Clarke, Sean Holland and Patrick Brosnan each scored once. Zach Currier, named tournament MVP, finished with four goals and six assists for Canada.
Ireland’s 16 goals were the most Canada conceded all weekend.
What the weekend showed
Head Coach Jeff Dowling said Ireland “showed well and we got better each game” and that the staff were already reviewing film from all three games for what to carry into the European championships.
Ireland’s pool in Salou is Israel, France, Norway, Austria and Croatia. The staff have finalised the roster for Spain on the basis of the weekend, and it will be announced separately.