CAPE TOWN - The South Africa men’s hockey team gave the crowd something to cheer about with two late goals on a rather disappointing night at
Hartleyvale on Wednesday.
The hosts conceded seven and could only reply with four against Belgium in the Cape Town Summer Series.
Jonty Robinson got the scoreboard going with a penalty in the 10th minute to put the home team in the lead.
With less than a minute left in the first chukka, Belgium got a goal back when Amaury Keusters found the back of the net.
A blitzkrieg of three goals in three minutes took the wind out of the SA sails in the second quarter. Maxime Plennevaux, Loick Luypaert and Alexandre de Pauw all got their names on the scoreboard, as Belgium led 4-1 at halftime.
Two more Belgium goals were scored in the third chukka courtesy of captain Thomas Briels and Plennevaux.
With the start of the last chukka, the score was 6-2 in favour of Belgium after Bili Ntuli scored SA’s second goal mere seconds before the whistle blew.
In the last quarter Dimitri Cuvelier added another goal for Belgium, while Brandon Panther and Tim Drummond scored for SA in the last three minutes.
The next match in the Summer Series is at 4pm on Thursday when the SA men will be in action for the last time in the series - the third and last match against Belgium. The series comes to an end on Friday when the SA women play against Belgium at 6pm.