Aussies whip SA in men's hockey
Pat Rowley
Men's favourites Australia virtually sealed a semi-final berth in the Commonwealth Games hockey tournament with a 4-1 win over South Africa on Sunday.
Having now beaten their two toughest group rivals, the World Cup silver medallists are expected to gain maximum points in their pool with their final game against a weak Barbados side on Monday.
South Africa, who beat Australia in the previous Commonwealth Games tournament in 1998, were unable to recover from their opponents scoring three goals in just over three minutes early in the second half.
Australia's Matthew Smith opened the scoring in the 20th minute before their goal spree began in the 41st minute when Jamie Dwyer converted a chance from open play.
Craig Victory then turned in a pass from Dean Butler before Ben Taylor made it 4-0 from a corner rebound almost immediately afterwards.
South Africa, who were without injured marksman Greg Nicol, twice had the ball in the Australian net without it counting before they pulled back a late goal with a penalty-stroke by Justin King.
"We are not playing particularly well but overall the results are good for us," said Australian coach Barry Dancer. "We had to grind them down but I felt confident that eventually the goals would come."
South African coach Rob Pullen said his side had lost after losing concentration for a few minutes.
"We just lost it for a couple of minutes. We made two errors and conceded three goals," said Pullen. "But we gave a gutsy performance against an Australian side that put us under a lot of pressure."
In the women's competition England and New Zealand who drew 2-2 on Friday, remained in contention for the top place in their pool by each winning their second games.
New Zealand came from behind to beat India 3-1 while, after a scoreless first half, England achieved their biggest win over Canada in nearly 50 years with a 6-1 victory.
England's Jane Smith scored a hat-trick in the match, which was enlivened by the appearance of a male streaker on the pitch when England were leading 4-0.
