Beautiful Day for Hockey
Day Two competition (Dec 4, 2011)
Game 1 MEN - (MEN) Aust. country 3 defeated PNG 1
Splendid Suva sunshine once again greeted hockey enthusiasts on Day Two of competition at the Oceania Pacific Cup championship at the National Hockey Centre.
The opening match in the men’s competition saw Australian Country fronting up for the first time in this championship while Papua New Guinea with their tails up from the 5-0 drubbing of Samoa yesterday were eager to face the Aussies.
The fine weather meant that the heat on the artificial turf was going to favour PNG but the scoreline of 3-1 at the end of the match favoured the Australians who came prepared for the heat.
The scoreboard did not show how close a game it was between the two teams, with supporters enthusiastically cheering on their respective sides.
Aussie assistant coach Marc Richardson said “we were expecting a tough game after playing them last year.
“The first half was a bit scrappy,” said Richardson.
PNG coach Thomas Kahai was satisfied with the scoreline saying “the boys had a good outing.
“There were a few costly errors but now we settled in with our game and looking forward to our remaining games,” said Kahai.
PNG’s next match is on Wednesday against Fiji in a test match and also features as an international ranking game.
Australia Country men’s take on Vanuatu tomorrow morning.
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