Strength in Australian cup hockey team

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 20

Strength in Australian cup hockey team

The Australian hockey squad which crushed New Zealand, 4-0. in a test series in September has been retained for the World Cup tournament in Argentina in March. Two young forwards, Rohan Dick and Bruce Cibich, who impressed in the final test against New Zealand at Perth, are included in the squad. Bruce Shanahan, the player who scored a fortuitous goal in the dying seconds of the first test in Auckland to give .Australia a 2-1 win, has been excluded. The full Australian team is: Ric Charlesworth (captain), Jim Irvine (vice-cap-tain). Way ne Greene, Bob Proc tor, lan Cooke. Wayne Hammond, David Bell. Grant Boyce, Barry Dancer. Trevor Smith. Greg Browning. Malcolm Poole. Steven Smith. Terry Walsh, Dick and Cibich.

The Australians have a team fully capable of reaching the final. They have a good defence that would probably be the equal of any at the World Cup. and forwards with the ability to take goal scoring chances. Cooke is a devastating striker of penalty-corners. It was he who scored three goals in the fourth test at Perth to help Australia to a 4-3 win against New Zealand. It was also Cooke who broke Trevor Manning's knee in the Montreal Olympic final last year. The pools for the tournament. have been announced by the International Hockey Federation. Judging by some of the unfamiliar names, a large difference in standard is sure to occur in Beuenos Aires. .Australia is in pool A with Belgium. Canada, England, India, Poland and

West Germany. Pool B comprises Argentina, the Netherlands. Ireland, Italy, Malaysia. Pakistan and Spain. In pool A, three teams — Australia, India and West Germany — stand out- Two of these three are sure to be semi-final-ists. In pool B Pakistan and the Netherlands are the best-performed sides, although Malaysia reached the semi-finals in the last World Cup on its home turf, Kuala Lumpur, in 1975. New Zealand is not the only eligible team that will be missing. Russia, which finished third in the Inter-continental Cup in Rome in September and qualified for the World Cup, will not make its debut. Ireland, England and Italy will play in the World Cup for the first time.