France pulled one back in the four-match men’s hockey series against South Africa in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday, winning the third Test 3-1 to keep alive their hopes of squaring the series.
Going into the fourth match at the same venue on Thursday afternoon, the visitors trail the home team 2-1 and will be desperately keen to end the series all square.
After losing the first two games in East London, France came out firing on Wednesday, and early defensive lapses by South Africa saw the tourists leap into a 2-0 lead after four minutes with goals from Julien Boyer and Matthew Durchon.
France kept up the pressure on a nervous-looking home team, but the South African defence settled down and eventually they narrowed the gap to 2-1 when, after two unsuccessful penalty corners, they were awarded a penalty stroke.
Ian Symons made no mistake to give South Africa some breathing space going into half-time.
In the second half, South Africa delivered a much better performance, putting together some good opportunities, but they found French goalkeeper Julien Thamin in excellent form. He denied them on several occasions and they were unable to convert any of the six penalty corners they had during the match.
But it was France who re-established the two-goal difference when Frederic Verrier netted from a penalty corner rebound in the 47th minute to complete the scoring. — Sapa