A young Namibian women’s hockey squad will face a baptism of fire when they take on South Africa in a four match test series in Cape Town next week.
The series forms part of South Africa’s preparations for the Hockey World Cup in Belgium and the Netherlands next month, while Namibia coach Trevor Cormack is looking further ahead preparing for the Africa Games to be held in Egypt next year.
“I realised that South Africa had nothing in the pipeline leading up to the world cup so I contacted their coach and asked if he would consider playing a test series against us, so he agreed and that’s how it came about. They will use it as preparation for the world cup, but for me its basically the start of our journey to the Africa Games in Egypt next year,” he said.
“The games were supposed to be held in January, but they were shifted to August because of the sensitivity of the US-Iran war, with Egypt being right there in the region,” he added.
South Africa is currently the top ranked field hockey team in Africa with a world ranking of 18, followed by Kenya (31), Ghana (32), Nigeria (38) and
Namibia (50).
Namibia will field a young team with several players from the national u18 and u21 squads called up alongside established internationals like Petro Stoffberg, Sunelle Pretorius, Tara Myburgh, Amber Dercksen, Azaylee Philander, Gillian Hermanus, and the Kruger sisters Jahntwa and Jivanka.
Some of the younger squad members include the Rowles sisters, Abigail and Alice; the Grögli sisters, Tamara and Leila; Marika Neethling, Ottilie Hinda, Erin Moffett, Jasmine Cartwright and Sienna Richards.
Cormack, however, announced that the captain Kiana Cormack was a late withdrawal from the squad.
“We called Kiana up and she was also supposed to be the captain, but she unfortunately had to withdraw because something came up with her in the Netherlands. But besides that it’s basically the best squad that we could put together,” he said.
South Africa, meanwhile, have named a strong team made up of experienced international players and upcoming players, including members of their u21 squad that won the u21 Africa title in Namibia last year.
Their most experienced international players include Onthathile Zulu (79 caps), Edith Molikoe (57), Stephanie Botha (53), Ongeziwe Mali (48), Marlise van Tonder (48), Jean-Leigh du Toit (48), Biance Wood (47), Taheera Augopusti (43) and Kayla de Waal (42). Their top u21 players include Ntsopa Mokoena, who was the player of the tournament at last year’s u21 Africa Cup and has already won 49 caps for South Africa, as well as the top goalscorer at that tournament, Caylin Maree.
The series kicks off in Cape Town next Monday, 20 July and Cormack said he expects a tough tournament.
“It’s going to be a tough, because the SA squad has been practising and preparing for the world cup, and all their players are playing for a spot in their world cup team, so they will not take it lightly. They will use it as preparation to choose their best squad for the world cup,” he said.
“For Namibia, this is the first opportunity we’ve had to pool our best players together and expose them at a higher level. Our objective is to get back to number two in Africa, because we are currently at number five. If we can get back to number two at the Africa Games we will get an opportunity to play number one in the final and that will be South Africa. So for us it will be great preparation for where we think we will end up at the Africa Games next year,” he said.
