Australia Blitz Hapless Samoa

WAIS hockey athletes have helped the Australian men’s and women’s hockey teams to crushing victories over minnows Samoa in the qualifying stage for next year’s World Cup.

The Kookaburras commenced their Oceania Cup campaign with a resounding 26-0 victory in Invercargill, New Zealand.

The match went as expected, with the Kookaburras having 11 individual goal scorers.

It took the Kookaburras only four minutes to score their first goal after Samoa showed some promising signs early, defending four consecutive penalty corners.

Aas the match progressed the Kookaburras managed to work their way around the Samoan defence with precision, and the goals soon followed.

Five goals to two time world player of the year Jamie Dwyer was a highlight of the match, while young up and comer Simon Orchard also contributed with four goals. WAIS athlete and Olympian, Fergus Kavanagh also added his name to the score sheet.

Samoa were able to generate one penalty corner late in the second half, however they were unable to convert.

Kiel Brown, Brent Livermore and Jamie Dwyer were amongst the best players for the Kookaburras, with coach Ric Charlesworth looking forward to tomorrow’s clash with New Zealand.

“It was a comfortable win over an inexperienced opponent. However the team gained valuable playing time on a newly laid surface. The encounter against New Zealand tomorrow will be a much better indicator of our true form,” said Charlesworth.

The Hockeyroos followed in kind, with WAIS forward Ashleigh Nelson hitting five goals in a commanding 16-0 win.

The match began perfectly for the Hockeyroos, with Kate Hollywood scoring the first goal of the match within the first minute.

This was just beginning for the Hockeyroos, who went on to score 11 more goals in the first half, including four to Western Australian Institute of Sport striker Ashleigh Nelson who finished with five goals overall.

Samoa stemmed the flow after half time, putting 11 players back in defence to concede only four more goals.

While they managed to save a number of shots on goal, they struggled to clear their defence which resulted in the majority of the half being played near the Hockeyroos goal.

While obviously pleased with the result, the Hockeyroos will be hoping to convert more of their penalty corner opportunities after generating 38 chances during today’s matches.

– Hockey Australia