Hockey: Hari gets time to recover before joining victorious NZ side

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Auckland forward Bevan Hari will be given as much time as possible to prove his fitness and force his way back into the New Zealand men's hockey team for the March Olympic qualifying tournament in Madrid.

Hari, a veteran in the national side, missed the three-match series against Poland that ended with a New Zealand clean sweep in Whangarei yesterday, but will join the squad at the training camp in Auckland this week.

Coach Kevin Towns expects to name his side for Madrid within the next day or two but is certain to bracket Hari with another player.

"Bevan has been given a full clearance to resume training but we need to see him in a combative role before making a final decision which will be made in consultation with his trainer, physiotherapist and surgeon," said Towns.

New Zealand wrapped up the series with a 5-1 win yesterday. They won the first test 3-1 and Saturday's second test 4-3 in a game in which all goals were scored in the second half.

While happy with the overall result, Towns was not so happy with some aspects of his team's effort.

"The lack of hockey showed for a number of our players," said Towns. "There were some individual weaknesses, mainly mental. There was also a hint of overconfidence and at times we were exposed quite badly."

Towns singled out goalkeeper Paul Woolford as the best of the New Zealand players.

"That tells you something," Towns said. "Too often we let ourselves down with poor movement of the ball, running into cluttered positions and holding the ball too long or running too close to the opposition."

But there were also some encouraging signs.

In a switch that obviously caught the visitors napping, Towns yesterday pushed inside forwards Ryan Archibald and Mitesh Patel into a more striking, rather than midfield, role with front-runners David Kosoof, Phil Burrows and Umesh Parag dropping deeper.

By the time the Poles had worked that out, New Zealand, with goals from Hayden Shaw and Burrows, were 2-0 ahead, which Kosoof stretched to 3-0 in the 22nd minute. Blair Hopping, from a penalty corner, and Lloyd Stephenson completed the scoring.

Arkadiusz Matuszak got one back for the visitors early in the second spell.

Shaw continued his grand run by scoring in each of the three tests.

"We still need more hockey," said Towns. "We have done a lot of work and showed we have pace to burn. We just have to work on other things, including the top two inches. At times we were let down by poor decision-making."

Midfielder Darren Smith, for work reasons, took no part in the tests, which allowed James Nation to play in all three matches in his return from injury.

New Zealand leave for Madrid on February 13 to play a warm-up match against Spain, a full test and a match against Japan.

Plans to play Holland have been scrapped.