Hockey: Walsh's equaliser saves face for unimaginative England

Japan 1 England 1

"The worst performance since I took over," were the disappointed words of England's Australian coach, Tricia Heberle, following a limp 1-1 draw with Japan last night.

"We did not play to our game plan," she added. "Our work level was down and we were deservedly punished." For much of the game, England were staring down the barrel of their first defeat to the Japanese. While they can still make the sixth-place target that guarantees substantial Lottery funding, the going in their last two pool games, against the USA and Spain, will be tough.

In a first half of limited scoring chances, the Japanese were first to sound the alarm bells. The highly skilful Sachimi Iwao in particular posed plenty of problems. England were nervous and finding it difficult to re-establish the form of their previous night's game against Australia. When they did move forward their passing was careless and lacking in imagination.

A miss by Helen Grant after eight minutes despite good approach work from Lucilla Wright and Rachel Walker set the pattern. Jane Smith and Leisa King also went wide before, midway through the half, the Japanese won a couple of penalty corners. However, these were confidently cleared.

Anna Bennett finally won England's only penalty corner of the half but they failed to get in a shot. In reply, the Japanese brought a string of good saves from Hilary Rose before Iwao wove through the ranks to open the scoring with two minutes to the break.

England came back out with all guns firing found it hard to force the equaliser. And after a 10-minute onslaught, their effort wilted. They had to survive a couple of penalty corners before regrouping and setting up several more chances. All went begging until England won only their third penalty corner in the 59th minute. On the slip, Kate Walsh thundered in the equaliser. A Japanese counterstrike was repelled and, with the minutes ebbing away, England made one final effort. However, they never looked like forcing the winner.

The United States were late entrants here, after being unable to reach the qualifier in France last year due to the events of 11 September and having to play off against India for the final place. However, they managed to collect their second win of the tournament when they beat the extremely disappointing South Africans, 3-0.

In the other pool, Argentina kept their 100 per cent record with a 2-0 win against China. Agustina Garcia scored twice as she tore through the Chinese defence to finish with clinical precision.