David Alegre's late goal saw Spain continue their hoodoo over the Irish men's team as they took the laurels 3-2 in the third test match of the tour to Cape Town.
It is part of an intense warm-weather training camp that sees Ireland play eight matches in less than two weeks.
This loss was Craig Fulton's first loss of the tour, following a 1-1 draw on Saturday with Canada, Timmy Cockram grabbing a last-minute equaliser from a penalty corner.
Against the Spaniards, Mitch Darling – captaining the side – won a corner that Shane O’Donoghue dispatched on the rebound for a seventh-minute lead.
They clung on to that lead until the break thanks to fine defending from Paul Gleghorne, Conor Harte and Stu Loughrey but conceded in the second half when Alvaro Iglesias netted a counter-attack effort.
First international goal
Ricardo Santana swapped the lead soon after only for Kirk Shimmins to tap in at the back post for 2-2 – his first international goal.
Alegre struck, however, with two minutes remaining.
Ireland meet an inexperienced South Africa this evening in their fourth tie.
On home turf, Railway Union won back the national indoor title as they held off Three Rock Rovers – victors a week ago in the Leinster final.
Serious jitters
They looked home and hosed at 7-3 one minute into the second half but Rovers got back to 7-6 with a minute to go to cause some serious jitters.
James Dick ended the day with six goals to his name, netting four times in the semi-final win over NICS while Kenny Carroll and Nick Tate both chipped in with braces in the final. Railway will now represent Ireland in European action in 2017 though they must be fearful that they will be playing in the bottom tier.
Queen’s are Ireland’s representatives next month in the 2016 edition but were wiped out this year 9-1 by Rovers in the semi-finals and offered precious little to suggest they will contend at a higher level.
