Fit and skilful N.Z.U. team

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 20

Fit and skilful N.Z.U. team

By

CYRIL WALTER,

coach of the

N.Z.U. men’s hockey team

The New Zealand Universities men’s hockey team which toured Australia last month possessed two priceless assets: its team spirit and unity were monumental, and its sheer determination not to yield was magnificient.

To such an extent did these factors predominate that they constituted an almost precocious maturity in a group whose average age was exactly twenty-one. It also possessed some players of ability and undoubted potential. • It played in Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Brisbane and Canberra, and it endured the fatigue of constant travel and the rigour of enormous hospitality. Throughout the tour the players ran with a speed and contributed a workload which were clearly etched tributes to sheer physical fitness. Its defence was superb. Less convincing was the attack because it was not

possible to deploy five forwards of similar skill. They were further handicapped by unusual umpiring interpretations which denied the team some 10 to 12 goals, the production of which seemed to break no known rule.

Initially, its modesty reacted against its confidence, yet it reached Brisbane unbeaten where upon it proceeded upon self-destruction against Queensland University with an appalling error rate.

At this point and apart from a match against Southern Tasmania, its major opposition was about to be encountered. The switch was made from the 5-3-2 deployment to the 3-5-2 system, which had been devised for the University of Canterbury club team while the latter’s five Olympians were operating so profitably in Montreal. Skilful Australian for-

wards were closely marked, contained, beaten back, and confused. N.Z.U. attacks increased. The system was working. Confidence developed. The players applied the system with a mature intelligence, began to revel in it, and spontaneously improvised effective and penetrative moves.

One such was the dribbling of Greg Pierce, 18 years of age, from the infield right-half position against the experienced Brisbane metropolitan team. It was memorable.

So was the implacable progress of his outfield partner, Gerard Guillen, traversing the right flank as far as the goal-line in both tests against Australian Universities, yet in the first half of the tour Guillen had been so un* sure of himself. The workload of the three strikers, Frank Borren, Peter Chapman, and Neil Edmundson, was ex-

hausting to watch, but they never faltered, never ceased from running. Their efforts were based upon a defence which seldom wavered in its tackling, covering and clear-i ing. The team’s best player was Wayne Buckingham at right full-back. He was cool and certain under pressure, he dribbled cleverly out of trouble, and he made magnificent goal-line saves from thunderbolts at penalty corners. So did his partner, Lance Wiltshire, who was equally cool and an excellent captain. Not many goalkeepers of 18 years of age would have been as safe, as resourceful and as fearless for the duration of such a tour as was Keith Stanners. His saving of a stroke in Hobart did more for the morale of the team than a hundred team-talks. At centre-half, Graeme Hall’s dartings and direction diversifications sometimes deluded his own team and utterly confused his opponents. On left flank or right flank within the half-line, Craig Galloway was more orthodox and so very effective. So faithfully did he mark his man that the latter might well have spent a more rewarding afternoon at home washing socks or ironing shirts. He almost

made for Rowen Dick, Australia’s World Cup striker, a non-event of each test.

Perhaps the most improved player in terms of poise, balance and confidence was Ross Fowler at times at inside-left, more often in the difficult role of securing the extreme left flank. For me it was fascinating to watch the growth of confidence in this young team and with it the development of initiative. Nor will I forget the eagerness of Buckingham on three memorable occasions when vital penalty strokes had to be converted. Many an older player has quailed in such high tension. There was one achievement which was remarkable in this team. In most of its matches it outran its opponents and countered their speed with greater speed, thereby having the better of the second half and finishing the final quarter with intensive pressure. This was no mean feat against Australians and it proved that they have no monopoly of the virtue of not knowing when they are beaten. The team played 13 matches, won 8, drew 3, and lost 2. It was not beaten when it used 3-5-2. It scored 24 goals, 15 of them in the second half, and conceded 11, of which three were somewhat dubious.