Three players from Hawke’s Bay have been among the heroes of one of the New Zealand men’s hockey team’s biggest triumphs in recent years with a penalty shootout win over France in the Nations Cup final in Poland today.
Teenaged former Napier Boys’ High School (NBHS) pupil Jonty Elmes,19, scored the Black Sticks’ only goal in regulation time, breaking a 0-0 deadlock in the 57th minute, as the game went to a 1-1 draw to force the shootout in which Sean Findlay, also from Hawke’s Bay, scored one of the goals in the 4-3 victory that followed.
Goalkeeper Dominic Dixon, another former NBHS student, was also among the heroes, keeping the Black Sticks in the game through regulation time, successfully defending several attacks as favourites France, ranked ninth in the world, strove to deny 10th-ranked New Zealand.
It was a confidence-boosting triumph as the Black Sticks prepare for the Olympic Games in Paris.
A fourth player from Hawke’s Bay, Sam Hiha, was a travelling reserve with the team in Poland.
The Nations Cup is a second-tier tournament, missing the top eight countries.
Dixon told Hawke’s Bay Today it had been “not too bad” having to face about three French opportunities on goal other than their one success.
The goalkeeping duties in the shootout were picked up by former Australian national representative Leon Hayward, who has an international career dating back to 2009.
With 25 matches for the Black Sticks now behind him, 27-year-old Dixon had a special word for Elmes, who made his senior international debut in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur last month.
Elmes had scored two goals in a 3-0 win over the host nation in pool play, where New Zealand won all four games.
“He’s killing it – he’s going really well,” Dixon said. “He’s barely shown any nerves in his first 12. Pretty exciting.”
There’s more drama to come, with the New Zealand squad for the Olympics still to be finalised.
Also in pool play, New Zealand beat Korea 4-2, South Africa 2-1 and host nation Poland 4-2, and scored a 2-1 win in the semifinals over Pakistan, ranked world No 16. They were runners-up in Kuala Lumpur and the top-scoring side in the latest tournament.
The New Zealand men’s biggest triumph in international hockey was the 1976 Olympic Games gold medal win over Australia, but they have never reached the semifinals in 12 other Olympic Games.
New Zealand’s best performance in a World Cup tournament was seventh, last year and three other times more than 40 years ago, but the country has been consistently a top-10 nation.
The biggest other successes in recent years have been second placings in the World League (2012-2013) and the Commonwealth Games in 2018, and wins at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tournament in 2012 and 2015.
The Black Sticks expect to play Olympics warm-up games against Spain and then face a tough Olympics pool play draw, against Belgium (ranked No 2), Australia (No 4),India (No 6), Argentina (No 7) and Ireland (No 11).
The Kiwis were third of the six teams in Kuala Lumpur, beating host nation Malaysia (No 13) in their semifinal, which was payback for an earlier loss in a tournament in which New Zealand was also beaten by eventual winners Japan (No 15).
There was also a strong Hawke’s Bay influence in the women’s Nations Cup tournament in Spain. The women’s Black Sticks, who missed qualifying for the Olympics, were beaten 2-1 by Chile in their semifinal today.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 40 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.