GURNEY HAILS ROCK’S COJONES AFTER WORLD CUP HEROICS
14/06/2026 By Aaron Nijjar
DARYL GURNEY hailed Josh Rock’s “cojones” after Northern Ireland kept their World Cup title defense alive.
World No8 Rock and Gurney edged past Latvia 8-7 in a dramatic last-leg decider to enter the semi-final in Frankfurt.
Rocky produced a brilliant 144 finish to seal victory with Madars Razma and Valters Melderis waiting on 24 to snatch the match.
The duo had found themselves 4-1 down against Latvia before launching a superb fightback to move 5-4 ahead after Gurney took out a brilliant 161 checkout.
Two-time major winner Gurney and Rock then surged into a 7-5 lead but squandered a handful of match darts, allowing Latvia to force a deciding leg.
But Rock came up with the goods in the final leg to book Northern Ireland’s place in the last four, where they will face either Germany or the Netherlands.
Rock said: “When you play for your country you want to give everything and he gave me the shot for the 144. I took it out as sweet as a nut so I am very happy.
“We did exactly what we did last night and made it hard for ourselves. We need to make sure to get in front and keep in front and we didn’t do that.
“But listen, we like doing it the hard way and we are here to win this trophy. We need to give ourselves a kick up the backside and get going from the start.”
Gurney heaped praise on his team-mate after the match, insisting Rock is one of the best players in the world and firmly belongs among the sport’s elite.
He added: “That is why this man is in the Premier League. He fully deserves to be in the Premier League.
“It takes cojones the size of this man’s to take that out under that much pressure because they were left on 24.
“This man just keeps on doing it. I am more than privileged to be partnered with this man.
“This man may have finished bottom of the Premier League but he is one of the best dart players on this planet.
“For him to go and do that under that much pressure at 7-7, there are only 10 people on the planet that can do that and he is one of them.”
