The Northerns men’s hockey team is the new national under-21 champions after beating Southerns 2-1 in the final of the interprovincial tournament played at Pretoria Girls High School over the weekend.
From a TuksHockey perspective, it is an exciting result as for one all of the players are from Tuks. Guy Elliot who coached Tuks to win the Varsity-title also coached the Northerns under-21 side. He was assisted by Gilbert de Villiers.
Judging by the scores Northerns were in rampant form scoring 37 goals in their seven games and only conceding two goals. Southerns was the only team who managed to outfox the Northerns defenders.
Elliott is however quick to point out that the statistics might be somewhat misleading.
“We were definitely the best team, but if I got, to be honest, I don’t think the standard of play at the tournament was of a very high standard. Actually, we should have won the game against Southerns by a more significant margin. Then I again I guess I should be realistic. It has been a long season for the players. You could see the guys were tired.
“I think our play on defence was outstanding throughout the tournament. I was especially impressed by the way Mitchell Currie, Mark Chong and Steven Paulo played. As far as I am concerned our goalkeeper, Sizwe Mthembu was the player of the tournament.
“What was somewhat worrisome was our play on the attack. The strikers were not on top of their game. In spite of the big scores. They let of chances go begging.”
The Northerns scores are: Draw Southerns 1-1; beat KwaZulu-Natal 8-0, beat Southerns B 7-0; beat Free State 7-0; beat Border 10-0. In the semi-final, Northerns outplayed Western Province to win 2-0. The score in the final was as mentioned 2-1.
Western Province won the women’s under-21 tournament.
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