World Cup looms for SA

The South African men’s hockey team are intensifying their preparations for the World Cup in India in December.

They will be competing for the sixth time at the 14th staging of the event and will be hoping to emulate or better the class of 1994 and 2010.

The final fixtures for the tournament have not yet been released.

In building up for the World Cup, South Africa will host France in a four-match Test series to be played at Wits University in Johannesburg.

France secured the final spot at the 2018 World Cup when they finished seventh at the Hockey World League semifinals at the same venue.

For South African coach Mark Hopkins, it will be the first time that local fans will see him in charge of a home fixture, before heading off to India.

With the World Cup now just under two months away, France and South Africa, ranked 16th and 15th in the world, will field most of their World Cup squads with the focus largely on fine-tuning rather than starting from scratch. – ANA