THE South African men’s hockey side begin their build-up campaign for the All Africa Games in September when they face Zimbabwe in the first of two internationals matches at the Parktown Boys High in Johannesburg on Thursday at 3.30pm. While the Amastokke occupy a higher world ranking than Zimbabwe, they can ill afford to take their opponents too lightly based on the fact that they are a complete unknown quantity. Coach Giles Bonnet and his players have not encountered the Zimbabweans since their last meeting at the 1996 All Africa Games in Harare, Zimbabwe. The last time the SA side in fact encountered African opposition of any kind was when they played Egypt in the Triangular tournament in Durban two years ago.