It proved to be an emotional weekend for Ben Johnson of Waterford Hockey Club as he earned his first cap for the Irish senior side on Saturday afternoon in Belfast.
Johnson lined out against Italy as the sides played a three game series over the weekend with Ireland prevailing 2-1 overall.
The 2019 All-Ireland schools winner with Newtown netted the equalising goal during Sunday's game as Ireland continued to ramp up their preparations ahead of the European Championships in August.
Ben featured on last night's "On The Ball" programme and admitted he is still buzzing after an unforgettable few days; "To be honest, haven't taken the cap off since I got back to Dublin, absolutely ecstatic after it all, a phenomenal weekend and it was lovely as well to have the first cap in the country and I was able to share it with family and friends so it was just lovely, great weekend".
He said it was brilliant to have plenty of supporters who made the journey up North; "Most of the guys could make it all the way up to Belfast which was really nice, I had my coaches, and friends and family able to make it up which was lovely, my grandparents came all the way from Connemara and all stretches of the country were able to come support me so it meant a lot".
It just goes to show that hard work and persistence can pay off as Ben has had to overcame different setbacks over the last few years; "It's not been an easy road for myself, I had a couple of injuries to come over, surgery on my knee, it was a crazy few years and then Covid to throw on top of that, it was just a crazy few years and to finally get over the line and just to get off the mark with the goal as well on the Sunday and the cap, I couldn't sum it up really".
Congratulations to Charlie Rowe and Ben Johnson who received their first senior international caps yesterday in our 3-0 win over Italy! Ben also scored his first senior international goal in today's 1-1 draw! pic.twitter.com/l8pnIRvpN9
— Ireland Men's Hockey (@IreMenHockey) June 12, 2022
You can listen back to the full-Interview with Ben by clicking here: https://www.wlrfm.com/listenback?date=13-06-2022 (along with last night's full Sports show which also featured Paul Lennon, Jamesie O' Connor and Aoife Murray).
