SA women set for big battle

Ken Borland

A top-class Argentina side will be the South African women’s hockey team’s second opponents as they meet in their Hockey World League semifinal at the Wits Astro today (6pm), with Sheldon Rostron’s (above) team facing a stiffer challenge after they secured a goalless draw against India in their opening match.

Argentina are ranked third in the world and are a side that are familiar with winning international tournaments, but lowly Chile managed to give them a hard time for lengthy periods before going down 2-0 in their opening match.

“Argentina have been very successful in many tournaments, they know what they’re doing and they’ll be very well prepared. They will also be trying to be better after their opening game, but we learnt a lot too from that, Chile helped us to understand them better. So we’ll make sure we close shop in the areas we need to, while still creating opportunities,” Rostron said yesterday.