SA women draw first blood, but lose opener in dramatic fashion

South Africa captain Jess O’ Connor scored the first goal of the 2023 Indoor Hockey World Cup in Pretoria on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough as her women's side went down 3-2 to Austria in a  battle that delivered drama in the final moments. 

The home team had a goal disallowed inside the final three minutes and then Tegan Fourie missed a penalty flick at the death. 

All three of the Austrian goals came from penalty corners, the equaliser from Daria Buchta, with Marta Laginja twice putting them into the lead, first making it 2-1 in the third quarter and then 3-2 late in the match. 

Kayla de Waal had pulled South Africa level at 2-2 with a superb field goal just before the end of the third quarter after a sniping run through the defence. 

The disallowed goal came almost immediately after Austria had gone up 3-2, but the shot, which had deflected into the net off a defender’s stick, had lifted off target. The only shots allowed to leave the pitch are those at goal. 

South Africa were awarded the last-gasp penalty flick after two Austrian players dropped to their knees to defend a penalty corner. 

Fourie flicked and Austrian goalkeeper Stella Rahden saved it. 

“It’s tough because she’s normally very consistent and good at it, but these things do happen,” coach Lennie Botha said. “I feel sorry for her, it’s just one of these things. And it was a very good save from the goalkeeper — it was a very good flick and a very good save.”

If the match ended in the depth of disappointment for South Africa, it started on a high, boosted by a vibrant crowd cheering them onto the pitch at the Heartfelt Arena. 

“It was unbelievable,” O’ Connor said afterwards. “To have this crowd behind you, for a hockey player, it’s never happened before for us as South Africans — the passion it fires inside you is amazing.”

But she was quick to concede the Austrians deserved to win. 

“We put up a good fight, we know we could have won, but at the end of the day you’ve got to put your chances away to win the game and we didn’t. We’ll go have a look at that on the video, reassess how we can do better and hopefully in the next game do better.”

The South African women play the Netherlands, the runners-up last time in 2018 and the top-ranked team in Pretoria, on Monday (7pm). 

“It’s going to be tough,” the skipper admitted.  “We’re going to try keep our structure tight at the back and basically slow them down as much as possible.

“We know they love a fast game and maybe we can frustrate them and rattle them a bit.”

In later women’s action on Sunday Czech Republic beat Belgium 6-1, Ukraine and Canada played to a 1-1 draw, Kazakhstan downed Namibia 5-3, the Netherlands trounced New Zealand 10-0 and Australia beat the US 4-2. 

TimesLIVE will update with results through the day. 

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