Collins proud of valiant effort by u17 boys at Dato Mirnawan Cup
The South African national u17 boys’ hockey head coach, Justin Collins, has praised his team for showing character and grit at the recently concluded Dato Mirnawan Cup in Malaysia.
Malaysia Speedy was crowned the champions of the boys’ section, while Japan defeated Malaysia Tigress to win the girls’ title.
The SA u17 girls bagged a bronze medal, and the boys finished in fourth after going down in the third-place playoff match against the Malaysia Tigers.
Reflecting on the tournament, Collins said he was pleased with his team’s efforts but lamented small errors that cost them in crucial moments.
“International hockey is a difficult platform to compete on,” he told SuperSport Schools Plus. “It’s about small defining chances that you need to take advantage of. We created a lot of good opportunities and showed a lot of promise within the time frames we had to prepare.
“This year, we had very structured ideas of how we wanted to play, and I feel the boys tried their best to achieve this.
“If we look at the tournament in totality, we have lost only one game, and that being against Japan. We drew against the champions in the pool stages and narrowly missed out on the final.
“The boys can be really chuffed with pushing the limits against some of the best in the world, especially because they are u17 competing against u18 boys. Japan was crowned the Asian champ earlier this year at u18 level, and for us to show so many promising signs against them, we can take a lot away from that.
“Hard lessons learnt, but the boys didn’t stop fighting for everyone back home.”
Heading into their final pool game against Japan, the South African boys needed one point to progress to the final.
It wasn’t going to be smooth sailing, though, as Japan had dominated play throughout the tournament and was unbeaten ahead of the meeting.
SA, however, made a bright start and went 2-0 up. However, lapses of concentration, mainly in the second half, cost them, and the East Asian side mounted a terrific comeback to win 5-2.
“The Japan match was a great game. We got outplayed in three of the four quarters. We had a chance to go 3-0 up, and a great save from them on the line unfortunately didn’t allow for that to happen,” Collins said.
“The boys were really disappointed to not get over the line, but what was encouraging was that we could put any team under pressure this tournament and, more importantly, we never gave up the fight. The boys showed courage and learnt some difficult lessons on the day.”
When asked for his opinion on what younger players aspiring to represent South Africa in the future should work on, the coach said: “I think, as a nation, and specifically at schools, we need to be more specific on training defensive concepts. Defending is a massive part of the game, and small moments can define outcomes.
“I also feel that younger players coming up the ranks could work on ball hitting in the circle. That makes your chances of making a national side much higher.”
Collins also thanked the Malaysian Hockey Federation and those who had got behind the South African teams.
“Playing in these conditions away from home, with different interpretations of the rules, is a great way for players to grow and broaden our base of players in our country.
“We, obviously, wanted to finish higher up, in the medals, but the boys tried their best.
“The coaching staff have been exceptional with giving these boys a base to grow their game. We have given the boys lots of tools to grow and hopefully exposed them to understand what it takes to get to the next level.
“I want to thank all the coaching staff for all their hard work in preparing for the tournament, as well as on the ground in Malaysia.
“Lastly, in closing, we want to thank everyone back home for supporting us and watching Team SA. We will bounce back and learn from the lesson tournament,” he concluded.
