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SA women working on attack

Johannesburg - The SA women's hockey team will aim to improve up front, according to head coach Giles Bonnet, as they prepare for a busy year which begins with a flurry of games in Cape Town.

“The very best teams have the upper hand as their play in the attacking third, allied to their finishing, is always more clinical than ours," Bonnet said on Saturday.

"That is the margin of difference that wins games against us. We will be looking to emulate this in 2013.

“Linked to this is the 2013 development of the team in specific focused areas, areas we can become as good as the top teams in the world in, and we should focus on these, while working on the key deliverables from the London Olympics, so three objectives."

Their season starts on Monday when they face Belgium in the first match of a four-Test series in Cape Town.

Following that series, the SA women will host the second round of the Hockey World League, in Cape Town, where they face Belgium, Austria, Azerbaijan and Ghana at the end of January. If they finish in the top two, they will qualify for the second round of the competition, as they look to book their place in the semi-finals in June.

They will then host the Investec Challenge, which includes world number one and London 2012 Olympic gold medallists the Netherlands, also in Cape Town.

Later in the year, in August, they will compete in the 2013 Africa Cup, where the winner will qualify for the 2014 World Cup.

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