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Johannesburg - The SA men's hockey team dominated Austria in the hotly-contested third test match at Queensmead in Durban on Thursday night but once again their finishing let them down and the Europeans snatched a 2-1 victory.
South Africa opened the scoring in the 14th minute through a superb Shannon Boucher flick from a penalty corner (PC) variation while Austria's goals came via a Florian Steyrer PC in the 30th with Michael Minar nailing the winner in the 46th.
The result means Austria have clinched the series 2-0 with one test still to play. The first test was drawn 1-1 while Austria won the second 4-3. The fourth and final test will take place on Friday.
Despite the series already having been decided, the South African team - with more than a dozen new caps - owe it to themselves to end this thrilling week of international hockey on the winning side. A further incentive is that it would be a great way to honour South Africa's Sheila Brown, who was Thursday named tournament director of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games hockey event.
Win a penalty corner
The third test was an exhilarating contest from the outset...SA's Richard Pautz getting a half-chance before some superb stickwork by Andrew Manson set Pautz up for what would have been a brilliant goal.
In the 13th minute Austria's Patrick Schmidt shook off tackles to win a penalty corner but Matthias Podpera couldn't get enough purchase on his drag-flick.
South Africa broke away, ultimately winning a penalty corner...the variation left resulting in Boucher spearing a beautifully timed flick past goalkeeper Mateusz Szymczyk that threatened to burst the net for a 1-0 lead to the men in green and gold in the 14th minute. The goal came with just one minute left in the first chukka. Hockey is now being played in four 15-minute chukkas.
The end-to-end action did not let up and South Africa's most experienced player in a very inexperienced, untried side, Jonty Robinson, came agonisingly close to getting on the scoresheet.
Mood improved
The Austrians were feeling the pressure and SA were again within sight of extending their 1-0 advantage, but as so often has happened in this series the Europeans - at full-strength on this tour - came away, won a penalty corner and Steyrer steered the equaliser into the backboard with just 20 seconds of the second chukka left (1-1 in the 30th minute).
Disaster struck SA one minute into the fourth and final chukka when Minar found the time and space to set his base before lashing a shot into the net (2-1 in the 46th minute).
Tempers flared shortly after, as the tension mounted, and SA were down to 10 men for a time, but the mood improved when a flying Brandon Panther was not far off from levelling the scores.
With five minutes left in the match the SA players combined brilliantly on attack and appeared absolutely certain to score but once again the Austrians managed to survive. As the clock ticked down, tempers threatened to get totally out of control near the subs' bench and in the dying seconds SA were once again achingly close to equalising, only to be denied.
