Dunboyne teenager set for historic basketball action

Ninteen-year-old Jack Tobin from Dunboyne will be in basketball action this week for Ireland after the five-man team for the FIBA Esports Open was announced today.

Tobin will be part of the history-making team as Ireland prepares to compete at an international Esports tournament for the first time this Saturday and Sunday

Joining Tobin will be Ireland captain Mick Curley and Dale West who both hail from Dublin, along with Eoghan Daly from Sallins and Josh Stedman who is originally from Kildare, but is now based in Carlow.

The FIBA Esports Open is a global Esports competition, played using multiplayer mode on NBA 2K21.

Ireland will compete in European qualifiers this weekend and have been drawn in Group 2 alongside Cyprus, Austria and Turkey.

Their first match is against Cyprus at 4.30pm on Saturday, followed by a contest with Austria at 7.10pm. They face group favourites Turkey on Sunday at 12.15pm.

The top two teams from the group will progress to the knock-out phase, which will also take place on Sunday.

Each of Ireland’s games will be streamed live by FIBA with full commentary.

There are four groups - Ireland is in Group 2.

The groups comprise

Group 1 - Russia, Latvia, Germany, Ukraine, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Group 2 - Austria, Cyprus, Turkey, Ireland.

Group 3 - Italy, Lithuania, Croatia, Great Britain.

Group 4 - Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal.