04-03-2010 Poor showing by SA Men vs Australia

New Delhi, India
Day: 12
Thursday, 4 March 2010
(Game 3, 16:35 GMT +3:30)

South Africa vs. Australia

Well, what can I say about that? When asked in the press conference after the game how I felt about the result I said ?Not great?! I then continued to explain what I thought led to the crushing 12-0 defeat.

For the third successive game we started really well and although we may not have looked completely comfortable with the pressure Australia were putting us under, we were getting out of our deep defensive zone.

So what changed? Well in my opinion we were just too naive, and performed like a team who had little experience of playing in big matches, against big teams. At this elite level your decision making needs to be top notch. Not for some of the time, but for every single moment in the game. Whether you?re running with the ball, tracking your runner or making a substitution you need to be continually analyzing the situation and making the right decision. When this stops happening, then things begin to fall apart.

We got it horribly wrong today and as captain I admit that. It doesn?t mean that I accept it, as no-one in our team does but from time to time these things happen in elite sport. What makes it harder is when reporters, and a vast majority of the public aren?t aware of how hard we have worked to get to where we are. They don?t know the money we have spent ourselves, the sacrifices we have made and our incredible desire to succeed.

Now I?m not asking for people to pity us, I?m merely suggesting that our one poor result should be put in context. We are still ranked 13 th in the world!

It?s not all doom and gloom however. What we have in this team is bucket loads of character, and we will bounce back! I still believe we are technically good enough to compete with any team here at this tournament, and hopefully we can prove this in our final three matches. We can still potentially finish 7 th at this tournament, if results go our way.

Thank you for a vast number of positive emails and best wishes the team and I have received. Your support and passion for SA Hockey is very inspiring to us!

Final Score 0-12 (loss)

Other results from our Pool: Both other matches ended 5-2. England beating Pakistan and Spain beating hosts India.