Ireland 2 Austria 1: Cast around for opinions and the view is that Ireland are back in their rightful position.

With yesterday's 2-1 win over Austria completed with some ease following two goals in the first half and many chances to score more, the Irish side have successfully executed the first of this week's tasks in Rome.

The team will now compete with the elite European Nations at the next European Championships in two years.

The win also puts Ireland into today's final against the Czech Republic, and a win there would guarantee a position in the World Cup qualifying event in China next spring.

The last time an Irish team qualified for a World Cup was in 1989, when Pakistan were hosts and the side were ranked 13th in the world, not 23rd.

Ireland are also in the melting pot to host an Olympic Games qualifying event, and that decision will be made later this month.

To have immediately regained the elite European status, having been relegated in Barcelona two years ago, will certainly have done no harm to that Olympic bid.

"We didn't come here to win silver," said Irish coach Dave Passmore afterwards. "We came here to win the tournament. That was a massive game for Irish hockey, not just the team, and the final is another massive game."

The first-half performance was the best Ireland have produced at the Roma Club in any of their four matches, and although it fell away somewhat in the second half, the game was entirely dominated by captain Paddy Brown and his players.

The Austrian goal came in the final minute's play, with scorer Tomasz Szmidt's screaming insult into the face of a grounded Wesley Batemen enough to earn himself a yellow card, Austria's fourth of the match.

All of the sinbin offences, apart from that one, were for cynical tackling as Austria regularly employed the awkward lunge and dragged foot to prevent Ireland sweeping into their goal area.

The first Irish goal came after a 30-minute bombardment when it looked as though Austria might just weather the half and frustrate the better side. But when Andy Barbour, who is having an excellent tournament, dribbled into the circle and pushed a speculative ball across the goal face it was the next busiest person on the pitch, Mark Irwin, who was sliding in and scrambling the ball reverse side into the goal.

Crucially, four minutes later Bateman pushed Austria's second short corner on to a post to hold Ireland's lead. But by the time the half was out Stephen Butler had added another goal to his growing list and breathing space was established.

Despite Alois Podlesak saving three times from Ireland's third corner, a fourth was awarded and the Glenanne player's trademark low drag flick had Ireland 2-0 ahead with just seven seconds remaining in the half.

The goal keeps Butler as the joint top goal scorer of the tournament with six, along with Italy's Gianluca Cirilli.

There was never the sense that Austria could pull two goals back, although in their best phase of the game just after the break Bateman and Jason Black defused a series of corners.

Black showed good pace to block with his stick and Bateman was imperious and aggressively defiant in and around his goalmouth.

On the hour Austria had two men in the bin, and if any criticism needs airing it is that Ireland didn't capitalise on that Austrian deficit.

Their goal arrived after Justin Sherriff was also shown the bin three minutes from the end in a fit of over-zealous umpiring. His innocuous tackle was termed cynical, and when the striker walked to the line Austria finally broke the defence in the final minute of play.

"We'd a very, very good first half," said Passmore. "We played to our game plan and kept our discipline and composure. That first half, I'd say, has been our best 35 minutes.

"I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't three or four goals. I think we created more than just two goals."

IRELAND 2 (M Irwin, S Butler), AUSTRIA 1 (T Szmidt)

IRELAND: W Bateman, J Black, P Brown (capt), D Smyth, K Burns, M Black, S Butler, A Barbour, J Sherriff, M Irwin, G Shaw. Rolling subs: M Gleghorne, I Lewers, D Hobbs, M Raphael.