Australian women’s field hockey team defeat France 1-0 at the Four Test Series – First Match Recap
The Australian women’s field hockey team won their first game against France 1-0 during the Four Test Series at the Perth Hockey Stadium on Monday. The team was unable to perform at their best in the field, but managed to take the win by scoring the only
goal of the match in the first half.
The French women had previously been trounced by Australia’s B team in the preceding three matches and were expected to show some strength and force against the Australia A team. This team comprises of newcomers and less experienced players like Bianca Greenshields,
Kate Hollywood and Stacia Joseph.
The Australian team showed up in the goal post scoring a hit in the early minutes of the match. This goal was as a result of a penalty corner that was struck by the Australian striker Sally O’ Toole, in the 8th minute of the match. She played
brilliantly throughout the game, and was rewarded with goal.
Even after countless efforts from the French players to score, the Australian defence cleverly succeeded to hold back the French strikers from scoring a goal throughout the rest of the match. Apart from scoring a goal, the opponents could not even attain
a penalty corner for themselves to level up the score.
The Australian team’s coach Neil Hawgood commented that the team needs to show concern and pressure towards holding the ball with themselves in the play. He said, “Defensively we were good but we lost control of the ball due to a lack of caring and also
poor decision making. We need to show more urgency and decisiveness on our press and when we have the ball.”
In addition to the Australian Sally, a few more team players like Kate Hollywood, Bianca Greenshields and Jackie McCrane out-performed in the field during this first test against France.
The rest of the three test matches that are scheduled for the Four Test Series are to be held in the same venue, the Perth Hockey Stadium between 1st to 4th in Australia.
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