Hockey World Cup Day 8 - Match 1: Australia vs South Africa 9-2

After a brief hiccup in their game against Argentina, Australia were back to their scoring best right from the first whistle in the game against South Africa. Blake Govers who scored the all important equaliser against Argentina was on fire, scoring 4 times in the first half to go level with Jip Janssen and Thierry Brinkman on the top scorer list. South Africa did manage to get on level terms after Australia’s opener, but Australia added 6 goals in between the 10th and 28th minute to make the South African equaliser in the 8th minute seem like a distant memory by the time the half time whistle blew. 

Jeremy Hayward added an 8th for Australia in the 32nd minute, but that would be the only goal scored in the 3rd quarter as South Africa tightened their defence. Tevin Kok had a great opportunity to score a goal as the time expired in the 3rd quarter, but his attempted lob over the keeper sailed over the goal. South Africa’s resurgence continued in the final quarter as well, as Tim Brand’s early 4th quarter goal was cancelled off by a late goal by Tevin Kok to keep the scoring in the final quarter balanced. 

Blake Govers was awarded player of the match for his 4-goal performance and said: “We got our goals early which was good because we weren’t very tidy in our performance in the second half. Overall it has been a good start to the World Cup.”