Tournament Wide Open after Draw

 

 

The first women’s hockey fixture of the inaugural Setanta Sports Trophy in Ireland saw the hosts and South Africa battle out to a competitive nil-all draw on Wednesday evening in Dublin, with both sides missing out on chances to snatch a decisive goal.

 

“I’m a little bit disappointed in our performance today, but relieved that we got the draw,” national coach Jenny King told gsport after the match.

 

“For me, our real weakness was the mid-field, they didn’t play to the game-plan, and just didn’t have the confidence to keep the ball, so we were continually being turned over, through our midfield,” said King.

 

Early South African pressure brought a great save from Irish keeper Mary Goode, whilst South African goalie Mariettte Rix produced a good save to deny Nikki Symmons’ drag flick off Ireland’s first short corner after 16 minutes.

 

“I thought that our defensive short corners were very good, so those were the positives that came out of the game,” continued King. “Defensively we were very good, I must really give credit to the defenders.”

 

South Africa had two penalty corners in the 28th and 29th minute, the second of which produced a brilliant save from Goode off a deflected shot.

 

“We had three really good scoring opportunities in the last 10 minutes of the first half,” said King, “And we didn’t managed to put them in, which would have made the difference in the end.”

 

The second half saw few opportunities, with South Africa controlling possession well and Ireland threatening on the break.

 

The best chance of the game for Ireland fell in the 60th minute, when an interception by Symmons and an interchange of passes saw her with a clear scoring chance, but her shot pushed just wide.

 

Was the South African team surprised by the Irish? “No,” said coach King. “We got what we expected, we knew that they were going to put immense pressure on us.

 

“They came at us very hard and very quickly, and closed down the ball-carrier very quickly, but that’s still no excuse,” continued King. “We anticipated it, and yet there were some players who just weren’t able to keep the ball.”

 

South Africa’s next match is against tournament favourites and world no. 4 Germany on Friday, who take on Scotland in their first match on Thursday.

 

“Well, we can take a little bit of light out of the game, in that our defense was very good today, so if we can keep that up, what we’ve got to look at now is (to ensure that) the goal difference stays as low as possible,” King said about their next fixture.

 

“(We’ll) try and get a draw, or even defend like mad, and maybe catch them on the break and score. So, with a draw today, its thrown the tournament wide open, and we’ve got everything to play for now.”