CAPE TOWN - It all started so splendidly well for the South African Women's hockey team, but ultimately they went down 4-1 to a rampant Great Britain outfit in their Pool A clash at the Tokyo Olympics.
Early pressure from the South Africans on the Great Britain goal resulted in three penalty corners. It was third time lucky for the ladies in green and gold when Nicole Walraven swept the ball home to give her team an early lead.
This was easily the best period of the game for the South Africans as they forced Great Britain into making plenty of mistakes in the first half.
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However, the British team have loads of experience and started to settle into their more natural passing game. They also started the slowing the pace of the game much more by employing much more width to their play.
The crucial blow came shortly before the halftime interval when Great Britain's Ellie Rayer cancelled out Walraven's opener.
This paved the way for Team GB to entirely dominate the second half as they overpowered South Africa with a further three goals.
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Anna Toman's deflection gave Great Britain the lead before Laura Unsworth's anticipation to pick up a stray South African pass in defence made it 3-1. Rayer then doubled her tally shortly before the final whistle to close out a comprehensive victory for the British women.
South Africa's challenge at this Tokyo 2020 Olympics only gets steeper as their next match is against the Pool B leaders the Netherlands on Wednesday at 2:30pm (SA time).
@ZaahierAdams
IOL Sport