Ken Borland

Everything went wrong for South Africa’s men’s side in a nightmare first half in which they conceded seven goals, before they regrouped and eventually lost 9-1 to Belgium in their Hockey World League match at the Wits Astro on Monday night.

While South Africa were undeniably poor, flatfooted and always half-a-yard off the pace of the game, credit must also go to Belgium for a dazzling first half in which everything they touched turned to gold, thanks to some ruthless finishing.

The home side, except for 18-year-old Dayaan Cassiem, waging a lone battle as he ran impressively up front, showed little of the fight that had characterised their women’s side in their memorable win over the USA the night before.

The first 20 minutes were bad enough for South Africa as they found themselves 3-0 down, Belgium scoring through an Alexander Hendrickx short-corner goal, Nicolas de Kerpel one-timing a loose ball into the roof of the net for a wonder-goal, and then captain Thomas Briels scrambling in the third.

Except it would get worse as Belgium then piled on four goals in the last five minutes of the first half. Simon Gougnard was allowed to waltz along the baseline before passing to a totally unmarked Briels to score the fourth; Sebastien Dockier also just ran away from his marker to get a good pass from Gauthier Boccard and slam a reverse-sticks rocket in; and Loick Luypaert’s fluffed short-corner drag-flick then somehow eluded goalkeeper Rassie Pieterse and post-man Tim Drummond; before Cedric Charlier, the driver of much of Belgium’s attacking play, got on the end of an overhead from Augustin Meurmans, showed good skill dribbling into the circle and then shot home between the goalkeeper’s legs.

South Africa coach Fabian Gregory said the mentality of the shellshocked team for the second half was just to make it a contest, which they succeeded in doing.

“In the first half we made unforced errors, our basic skills were non-existent and we could not keep the ball, and you cannot do that against a world-class team like Belgium, they punished us every time, but I was disappointed by some of the soft goals we let in.

“The second half was the type of hockey I expect from the team after a really disappointing first half. It was about how much we could compete, we said we were starting again at 0-0 and we will try and salvage something from the game,” Gregory said afterwards.

The second half did not start well for the hosts though as Jethro Eustice made a good tackle in the circle but the ball went back towards his own goal, and Matthew Guise-Brown slipped in trying to clear it and Dockier was presented with an easy goal.

But South Africa were on the scoreboard two minutes later as Guise-Brown fired a superb short-corner drag-flick into the top-right corner and they had a handful of other good chances in the second half.

It was Belgium who would have the final say, however, as more soft defending by South Africa in the 59^th minute saw them just stand off and allow Boccard to run into the circle and fire the ball into goal past Richard Curtis, who replaced Pieterse for the second half and impressed.

Gregory said he was particularly unhappy that his team did not stick to the strategy that had been decided beforehand.

“If I’m brutally honest, the team did not execute tactically what we asked for, the application of that strategy was terrible and that’s why we did not cope well with the Belgian press.”

South Africa will now play a promotion/relegation game against Japan on Friday and will be desperate to stay up in the elite Hockey World League.

Germany, Belgium, Ireland and Egypt will go through to the quarterfinals from Pool B, to play France, New Zealand, Spain and Australia respectively.

Results: Germany 2 (Tom Grambusch, Martin Zwicker) Ireland 0; Australia 7 (Mark Knowles, Jake Whetton 2, Dylan Wotherspoon, Aran Zalewski, Tom Wickham, Jeremy Hayward) Japan 2 (Shota Yamada, Hirotaka Zendana); Spain 4 (Josep Romeu, Enrique Gonzalez, Alvaro Iglesias, Pau Quemada) New Zealand 3 (Shea McAleese, Nic Woods, Kane Russell); Belgium 9 (Alexander Hendrickx, Nicolas de Kerpel, Thomas Briels 2, Sebastien Dockier 2, Loick Luypaert, Cedric Charlier, Gauthier Boccard) South Africa 1 (Matthew Guise-Brown).

Tuesday’s fixtures (women’s quarterfinals): 11.15 USA v Japan; 1.30 Argentina v Ireland; 3.45 England v India; 6pm Germany v South Africa.

American Bill Haas and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts shared the first-round lead at the Nedbank Golf Challenge on Thursday, but they were far from a dominant position as eight of the 12-man field finished the day within two strokes of the pair.

Haas and Colsaerts both shot two-under-par 70s to head the leaderboard, with Louis Oosthuizen, Paul Lawrie and defending champion Lee Westwood just a stroke back.

Five other golfers were level-par after the first round, including former world number one Martin Kaymer and South African Charl Schwartzel.

On a cloudless, boiling hot day in the Pilanesberg, the 12-man field struggled in tough conditions, with a shifting breeze and the thickness of the rough causing much uncertainty.

Oosthuizen, the highest-ranked South African golfer in the world, claimed the early lead after he rebounded from a one-over-par outward nine, featuring three bogeys and two birdies, with a solid two-under 34 coming in, for a 71 overall.

But Haas, a Sun City rookie, stormed to four-under-par through 15 holes before slipping back to a 70 after dropped shots on the par-three 16th and par-four 18th holes.

Colsaerts, playing in the two-ball after Haas, produced the most consistent round of the day with just a single bogey, at the daunting par-four eighth hole.

The long-hitting Ryder Cup hero, also making his debut in the NGC, said it was hard work making allowance for the wind as well as altitude and the thickness of the semi-rough.

“The wind was a bit difficult to read. It always seemed to be coming off the side,” Colsaerts said.

“And with the effects of altitude and different grass to what we’re used to in the rough, it was very easy to get your yardage calculations wrong.”

The 30-year-old Colsaerts is one of the most entertaining golfers in the field, given his length off the tee, but he said he felt compelled to rein himself in because of the testing conditions.

“I didn’t use a very aggressive game plan, even with the driver when I used it. I think I played like everyone else, hitting the same spots, because you were better off hitting an iron from the fairway than a lob-wedge out of the kikuyu rough.

“I probably played close to my best in terms of management off the tee.”

Haas had the chance to separate himself from the rest of the field, but the American, whose father Jay is playing in the Champions Challenge on the same course, was satisfied with his round.

“I’d done well to get to four-under. There was a bit of breeze out there, the wind showed its teeth today, and, after missing a short putt on 16, I was happy to make a 10-footer for bogey on the last,” Haas said.

“I didn’t win it today, but I’m not out of it either.”

England’s Justin Rose, one of the pre-tournament favourites, will have to put pressure on the leaders from afar after he struggled to a one-over-par 73. The world number four birdied the two par-fives around the turn, but then picked up three successive bogeys from the 11th to 13th holes.

– http://www.sapa.org.za/secure/view.cfm?id=3610564&year=2012&srce=search&s=0&Criteria=Haas&Indexes=Head%2CBody&CategoryCodes=&AgeMax=3m&SearchYears=&FromYear=&FromMonth=1&ToYear=2013&ToMonth=12&StartDate=%7Bts+%272012-10-07+13%3A05%3A34%27%7D&StopDate=%7Bts+%272013-01-08+13%3A05%3A34%27%7D&debug=False&wf_startrow=41