South Africa suffered an 8-0 drubbing at the hands of the England men’s hockey team at the Tshwane University of Technology on Monday night.
Having managed to limit the margin of defeat to just one goal in the previous two Tests (which they lost 3-2 and 2-1 over the weekend), the South African side just couldn’t make an impact on the rampant English, who obliterated any attempt at a South African line of defence.
It took just 12 minutes for the English to take a 3-0 lead, with goals from James Tindall (in the eighth minute), Simon Mantell (just seconds later) and Matt Daly (two minutes after that).
Mantell scored one more for the visitors before half-time, taking his side into the break 4-0 up.
There were four more goals to come from the English. Tindall was first up, scoring from a penalty corner in the 40th minute, and he scored again off another corner in the 57th.
Mantell then added two more to England’s total. He scored when his side were awarded a penalty stroke in the 59th minute and again off a stunningly executed field goal in the 63rd, to take his total to four in the match.
Judging from this performance, it is difficult to imagine that it was just a year ago that the South African side notched up a 2-1 series victory over the English.
Coach Paul Revington will now have his work cut out with the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne just two months away. His team’s last international matches before then will be against Ireland on Tuesday at 7pm and on Thursday at 6pm, also at the Tshwane University of Technology.
Meanwhile, earlier in the evening, the South Africa A team went down 7-4 to Australian state side New South Wales, losing the four-Test series 2-1. New South Wales play England at 5pm in the curtain-raiser to the South Africa vs Ireland match. — Sapa