GB beaten by Springboks
04 February 2012
SOUTH AFRICA 5 GREAT BRITAIN 3
FIRST TEST MATCH IN CAPE TOWN
Great Britain made a disappointing start to the three match test series against South Africa by losing 5-3 in the opening encounter in front of 2,000 fans in Cape town.
It started well enough, perhaps against the run of play Reading`s Nick Catlin opened the scoring for GB after he followed up a Richard Mantell penalty corner shot. The Springboks rallied and were 2-1 up at the interval.
The home side went 3-1 up in 43 minutes, but GB pulled one back when Simon Mantell followed up his own initial shot to beat the Springbok keeper. The fight back failed to materialise and the South Africans stretched their lead to 5-2. Rob Moore got a goal in the final minute but it was little more than a consolation.
After the game Andy Halliday, GB team manager, said: "It was a disappointing start to the test series. We were slow out of the blocks and were punished by a clinical South African team, but we had plenty of chances to get back into the game which we didn`t take."
The second test match is on Tuesday.
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