Australia’s Win Seals Series

The Australian women’s
hockey team beat South
Africa 1-0 yesterday to clinch the SPAR
challenge series with two consecutive victories against SA’s series-opening win
on Wednesday this week.

After levelling the series at one-all on Friday, Australia – ranked fourth in the world – came
out with new determination to ensure they kept the 12th-ranked South Africa
out of the match and effectively out of the series.

The short turnaround between Friday match and Saturday’s
series final seemed to have more of an effect on the home side, as they made
countless basic errors in the first half.

Possession was easily given away and South Africa found themselves in trouble early
on when Australia’s
Kate Hollywood scored from a short corner in the 16th minute. Sharné
Bailey and Shelley Russel then had chances for South Africa, but a lack of support
up font let them down again.

Australia looked like they were easily going
to walk it, but the halftime break came at the right time for South Africa.

In a repeat of the Friday encounter, the hosts came back to
put in much better performance in the second half, with the amount errors
coming down to almost zero.

Vida Ryan had another go at the Australian goal, but her
shot was saved by the Australian ‘keeper Toni Cronk, and through South Africa
were unable to score, their improvement was encouraging.

"The girls decided at halftime that they could dig a
lot deeper and came back much stronger in the second half," said South
African coach Jenny King, "We should have capitalised on our chances, and
that’s where we could have improved."

For Frank Murray, the Australian coach, the series was a
tough one, but attributes his team’s success to competition within the squad.

"South Africa play a fair, tough game and they as
they’re as good as the rest," he reckoned, "But the girls are playing
for a spot in our Olympic team, so that’s why there was extra
determination."

South Africa have grown in leaps and bounds over
the past two years, and competition against sides of Australia’s calibre can only be a
good thing. Coach King said she was impressed with the way her team has come on,
and hinted at big plans for them in the future.

"We came close in the series because we were a better
team, and not because they were off-colour," she reckoned, "We were
definitely more competent in this series and there’s some work to be
done."

King has organised for the team to travel to Holland later this year
for a training camp with some of the best coaching staff in the world. SPAR
have also lined up a few series’ next year as they prepare for the Beijing
Olympic Games.