Australia in Cleansweep Series Wins

The Australian U21 women showed that their 4-0 victory over the SA U21 team in the third test match was no fluke, when the young Hockeyroos won the fourth and final test by a very convincing 6 goals to one. 

Once again it was the second half performance that will leave a sour taste in the mouth of Fabian Gregory and his young group of players.

In the first half it seemed like South Africa were going to bounce back strongly after their disappointing performance in Saturday’s third test. They were able to wear off the initial Australian attacks.

As early as the first minute of the match, Australia had the SA girls scampering in defence, but they were well up to the test with Hanli Hattingh in goals, and the rest of the defensive unit wide awake to this initial attack.

But Australia was not going to let up any pressure, and in the second minute they beat the SA defence to force the first penalty corner of the match, at which a mistake by the Aussie stopper led to an SA counter-attack.

The Aussies came straight back though, to win another, and once again SA were lucky when the Australian stopper could not control the ball, which invited another counter-attack, eventually resulting in an SA long corner.

One of the stars throughout the week for South Africa, Roxanne Turner, was on hand to create some magic, forcing a free hit outside the Australian circle. Philippa Rabey took the hit connecting well with KZN striker Kerry Gaze. Gaze used the time and space in the circle to pick her spot past the Australian goalkeeper for South Africa’s first goal in the series.

South Africa’s joy was short lived. The Australians struck back almost immediately when Chantelle Ciallella found herself on the top of the circle with only the goalkeeper to beat. She managed to get around Hattingh and then continued to calmly put the ball past the covering SA defenders and in the back of the net.

The continued Australian pressure paid off again in the 16th minute, when captain Fiona Boyce slotted their second goal past a diving Hattingh, and for the rest of the half, the two teams played territorial ping-pong with both teams attacking the other’s goal area.

Australia managed to sustain more pressure on the SA goals throughout the half, and managed three more short corners, while the SA goalkeeper Hanli Hattingh managed to pull off some solid saves, and backed up by her cover defenders, the SA girls made sure that the Aussies were disappointed after their various attempts on goal.

The second half was pretty much one-way traffic for the Australians. In the third minute they made sure that they capitalised on turnover possession deep in the SA half, where Chantelle Ciallella was on hand again to slot the rebound from the initial shot to make it 3-1 to Australia.

In response to the Australian attacks, Roxanne Turner again managed to give some spark to SA attack, when a good display of individual skill resulted in the first South African penalty corner of the match, but unfortunately SA failed to capitalize on this opportunity.

For the next 15 minutes it was all Australia. South Africa paid the price for giving away possession too easily and Australia used all their experience to make sure that they capitalized on the SA mistakes.

Fiona Boyce and Emily Hurtz scored the fourth and fifth goals for Australia, and the Australian goal-feast was capped when Chantelle Ciallella scored her third of the match, with 15 minutes to go.

With the score at 1-6 South Africa had all their pride to play for, and to their credit, the South Africans did not give up the fight, finishing strongly and playing their best hockey of the match in the remaining ten minutes.

Their efforts were nearly rewarded with a late goal, but they were just unable to beat the Australian goalkeeper who managed to get in the way of the initial shot at goal and the resulting rebounds.

The resounding 6-1 victory for Australia is a good reflection of their well rounded team and their individual skills and toughness being a notch above that of the South Africans.

Although the SA U21 team and coaching staff will not be satisfied with this final outing after a reasonably good start in the series, they would have gained much experience.

Each member of the team will now know what is expected of them if they want to be competitive at international level. Individual performances throughout the series, like those of Jade Mayne and Roxanne Turner, also bode well for things to come for the team. Everything that this young team has learned will come in handy when they take on the very impressive Dutch U21 team in January.