South Africa’s men’s and women’s hockey teams are primed for international action when they take on some of the world’s top teams in the Cape Town Summer Series at Hartleyvale Hockey Stadium from Friday to February 3.
The men’s side will be looking to build on some of the positive results they produced at the corresponding series last year.
They finished the 2016 Summer Series on a high with a 2-0 victory over Canada before suffering a three-Test series whitewash against London 2012 Olympic champions Germany.
Ranked 15th, the South Africans have a mountain to climb as they go up against World No 3 The Netherlands and Belgium, who are ranked fifth.
The women’s side have a slightly easier task as they cross sticks with eighth-ranked China, Belgium (14th) and Chile (23rd).
Last year the women’s side opened their season with a 1-0 series defeat to India before securing a 2-1 series victory over Scotland.
In their last international appearance in March 2016, they suffered a 5-1 defeat to Germany before forcing a creditable 1-1 draw.
The Summer Series is the perfect dress rehearsal for the South African teams ahead of the Hockey World League semi-finals later this year.
The tournaments for both men and women’s teams are qualifiers for the 2018 Hockey World Cup, and will be the biggest event of its kind to be hosted in South Africa.
The South African women’s team will open their campaign in the Summer Series on Friday when they take on Chile, while the men take on the Dutch on Sunday.