Derek Ryan produced his best result of the year at the men's World Team Squash Championship in Malaysia yesterday, beating Alex Gough, the world number 12, 3-0, in Ireland's 9th-16th place play-off against Wales. However defeats for Maurice Collins and Patrick Foster meant the Irish captain's victory was not enough to save his team from their first loss of the tournament. They now drop in to the 13th-16th playoffs where they meet 12th seeds France today.

"The bubble finally burst," said team manager John McKay after the defeat against the number six seeds, who were runners-up in last year's European Championship.

Once again Ryan gave the team a dream start by beating Gough, who is expected to be in the top 10 of the next world rankings after reaching the semi-finals of the World Open last week. "Derek played magnificent squash against Alex who, admittedly, is feeling the effects of last week's exertions," said McKay. "He really is on fire and, playing like this, could go through the whole team event undefeated."

Ryan dropped just 10 points to the Welsh number one and hopes of a surprise Irish victory rose further when Collins took an early 7-2 lead against David Evans (ranked 36 in the world) in the first game of their match. However Evans fought back to take the opening game 108, and despite a performance that drew praise from Welsh coach Chris Robertson, Collins went on to lose the final two games 5-9, 6-9. The match then rested on the outcome of the tie between Foster and Gareth Davies but the Irish number three took just six points in a straight-games defeat. Meanwhile the top four seeds - England, Australia, Egypt and Canada - whitewashed their opponents (Finland, South Africa, Pakistan and Malaysia respectively) in the quarter-finals. England, the defending champions, meet Australia and Egypt play Canada in today's semi-finals.

Men's World Team Championship (at Kuala Lumpur) - 9th-16th place play-offs: Ireland 1, Wales 2 (D Ryan bt A Gough 9-4, 9-3, 93; M Collins lost to D Evans 8-10, 5-9, 6-9; P Foster lost to G Davies 2-9, 0-9, 4-9).