5-0 victory over South Africa gives New Zealand six points from two games
New Zealand’s Black Sticks maintained their perfect start to the Rabobank Hockey World Cup by surging to a convincing 5-0 Pool B win over South Africa in the GreenFields Stadium. Drag-flicking defender Andy Hayward netted a hat-trick of penalty corners as the world number 6 and Hockey World League Silver medallists claimed a second successive victory. The result puts New Zealand onto six points and the quality of their performance will fill them with great confidence for the rest of the tournament.
New Zealand started the contest in explosive fashion, establishing a 3-0 lead inside the opening 17 minutes of the first half thanks to an wonderful individual effort from Simon Child which was followed by a brace of ripping penalty corner drag-flicks from Hayward. Child’s goal was an absolute peach, with the 26-year-old striker collecting a high pass at the top of the circle before rifling an unstoppable shot into the roof of South Africa goalkeeper Erasmus Pieterse’s net.
Despite the score-line, South Africa gave an excellent showing of themselves and could easily have equalised following Child’s opener when team captain Austin Smith rattled the cross-bar from a penalty corner, while Black Sticks shot-stopper Devon Manchester made a number of crucial blocks to help his team maintain their three goal advantage at the break.
The African Champions pressed the Black Sticks deep into their own half for much of the early stages of the second period, but the defensive line marshalled by Hayward and captain Dean Cousins proved to be exceptionally difficult to break down.
Simon Child almost added to New Zealand’s tally when he cracked a backhand shot into Peterse’s helmet before another two goals arrived. Both came from penalty corners but were wildly different in their execution, with Shea McAleese – who was playing his 200th game for the Black Sticks – guiding a deflection into the roof of the net in the 52nd minute before a Hayward special completed both his hat-trick and the match scoring two minutes later.
Official Match Report (PDF)