Hockey: Coach says ninth placing no reflection of merit

By TERRY MADDAFORD

New Zealand coach Craig Hobbs applauds the decision to scrap the four-pool format at future international tournaments.

Looking back after his side beat France 2-0 in Hobart on Saturday to finish ninth at the Junior World Cup, Hobbs said given the chance in a fairer environment his under-21 team could have finished in the top five at the 16-team tournament.

"The FIH have confirmed all future tournaments will be played in pools of eight, with the top four to progress, which is much fairer," said Hobbs. "What was really annoying was that the recent women's World Cup qualifier was switched to that format at the last minute but organisers here refused to do that.

"The feeling was Australia had an easy path to post-section and they did not want to risk that."

Australia had only Chile, England and Ireland in their pool and cruised through to the top eight.

New Zealand faced finalists Argentina, third-placed Germany and Malaysia, who lost on strokes to South Africa after leading 3-0 at one stage in the playoff for 11th.

"We proved we were better than the ninth-best team," said Hobbs. "We beat South Korea 3-0 in a warm-up and they went on to beat the Dutch 3-2 in the playoff for seventh. I'm sure we would have given Spain a good go too. They beat Australia 2-0 for fifth. England finished fourth and we are sure we could have beaten them."

Against France, Hayden Shaw scored from an early penalty corner and Lloyd Stephenson made it 2-0 inside eight minutes.

"We again looked very good in the first half," said Hobbs. "Then it was just a case of hanging on, which we did comfortably despite the French forcing a few penalty corners."

Hobbs expected some players from Hobart to be named in the senior trials squad later this week.

"The selectors are not going to include Ryan Archibald, Phil Burrows or Blair Hopping, as they have had a lot of hockey this year.

"But I would expect some of the others like goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex, who had an outstanding tournament, Shaw, Dean Couzins, Stephenson and Casey Henwood to be named."

Hobbs said the lack of a long build-up had counted against his team.

"Some of the others had played a lot of hockey, some of it internationally, in preparing for the Junior World Cup. We did not have the money to do that but I still feel reasonably happy with what we achieved."