Hockey: England want win to avoid Australia

While Australia, the champions, are set to dominate the Commonwealth Games hockey tournament, pundits forecast an Australia and England final in both events. This is a possibility for the women's final but it will need a good performance from the Enlgish men to improve on the bronze they obtained in the last Games in Kuala Lumpur when hockey was introduced.

Pakistan are the first hurdle for the men. Defeat would not rule England out of the medals but would probably mean, should they reach the semis, their opponents would be the Australians, under England's former coach Barry Dancer, who will arrive with two victories last weekend in Stuttgart over the German World Champions.

Wales and Canada, who complete England's pool, should not offer a problem. Canada have never beaten England and Wales have not won since 1974. In the second pool, in addition to Australia, there are South Africa and New Zealand who have both had recent victories over England and might prove difficult in the final crossover stages.

In the women's the rivalry between England and Australia is likely to be as great as ever, although two past players will be missing.

Australia's Alyson Annan and England's Jane Sixsmith have both retired from the international game since the Sydney Olympics.

Australia, however, still have match winners in Nikki Hudson and Louise Dobson, while England's Australian coach Tricia Heberle, a member of the Australian coaching team at the last Commonwealth Games, has blended a squad of experience and athletic youthful talent into a match-winning combination. In little more than a year Heberle's new squad have won both the World Cup qualifier and the Champions Challenge although she is the first to acknowledge the opposition has not been of the greatest: "Our form coming into the Commonwealths has been encouraging, though we remain untested against quality teams like New Zealand and Australia."