Improving SA men's hockey team looking to turn the corner against France

Cape Town - The South African men's hockey team have started showing improvement after suffering heavy defeats in their opening FIH Pro League matches in n Potchefstroom.

In their two opening matches against the Netherlands (11-1) and India (10-2) the South Africans came away with an overall goal aggregate of 21-3. Over the weekend, against the same opponents Netherlands (6-2) and India (10-2), the aggregate improved somewhat to 16-4.

The return clash against India was historical. For the first time, the South African men's hockey was captained by a black African Bili Ntuli. He is vastly experienced with close on to 70 caps and his tenure started on a high note when the South Africans opened the scoring against India. In the end, India prevailed for the second time with an identical winning scoreline of 10-2.

On Tuesday night, South Africa will play France and players felt the vastly improved display against the Netherlands is something the team can build on.

ALSO READ: SA hockey have a shot at redemption against The Netherlands after Olympics let-off

Owen Mvimbi, a seasoned campaigner with over 50 caps said he felt that the team could have caused an upset against the Netherlands.

“It was an interesting game with a lot of big moments that could have swung the game either way," said Mvimbi.

"If we had levelled at 2-all, I believe that the momentum would’ve changed in our direction. However, moments after we missed, they went 3-1 up, which we held them at for some time.

"Having said that, we applied much more pressure than previously, and we did a lot more defensive work on them which held them out and was good. We were a lot more confident on the ball.

"We were not too flustered or too scared which allowed us to get a lot