Hockey World League semifinals: SA men suffer same scoring problem as women

South Africa’s men’s hockey team were bemoaning the same lack of efficiency in front of goal as their women’s team as they lost 2-0 to Ireland in their opening match at the Hockey World League semi-finals at the Wits Astro on Sunday evening.

The women’s team were held to a 0-0 draw by India on the first night of the tournament, despite having several chances to win the game, and the men’s team were unable to make anything of their dominance in terms of both possession and territory against Ireland.

South Africa pressured the Irish from the opening exchanges, with some promising attacks failing to bring reward as the forwards just did not connect as well as they should have up front. But Ireland looked dangerous on the break a couple of times and the third time they attacked the South African circle, after Tim Drummond had lost the ball in midfield, brought reward.

Rhett Halkett failed to stop a hit along the baseline and the ball deflected straight into the path of Matthew Nelson, at the penalty-spot, and he was easily able to ram the ball past goalkeeper Rassie Pieterse.

South Africa were pressing hard, earning a number of short-corners, when halftime came, but they were unable to break through a brilliant Irish defence.

Coach Fabian Gregory said afterwards that the team were disappointed not to make more of their short-corner chances.

“The penalty corners were our achilles heel tonight, we were disappointed with those. But in Austin Smith and Matthew Guise-Brown we have two world-class flickers and we backed them, which is why we didn’t try many variations. But the Irish first wave ran a really tight line and their goalkeeper, David Harte, who I rank as the best in the world, made some helluva good saves,” Gregory said.

That Irish defiance continued in the third quarter and, two minutes into the final chukka, Ireland increased their lead to 2-0 and that was that.

Alan Sothern made a fine run into space and the umpire ruled that he had been barged over by Jonty Robinson, awarding Ireland a short-corner, Shane O’Donoghue scoring with a powerful, low flick that rocketed into the backboard.

South Africa just could not raise the pace of their game sufficiently to stress the Ireland defence and the team coached by former SA international Craig Fulton could be well-pleased with their start to a tournament in which they are definite dark horses.

Earlier, Belgium showed that they will be strong contenders for the title as they hammered Egypt 10-0, Tom Boon and captain Thomas Briels both scoring twice.

Spain came from 1-0 down to beat Japan 2-1 in a fast-paced game, Alvaro Iglesias getting the winner with a field goal in the 49^th minute, while France showed that they will be no pushovers even though they are ranked 17^th in the world, as they snatched a 3-3 draw with New Zealand via a 44^th-minute equaliser by Pieter van Straaten.