Ireland 1 defeated South Africa 0
IRL - Eugene Magee FG 33m
Ireland recorded their first ever win over South Africa in a senior international with a one-goal victory in Pretoria.
Ireland started brightly and controlled possession without making it count in clear goal scoring opportunities.
They narrowly missed taking the lead in the 12th minute when John Jermyn managed to lob the ball over the advancing South African goal keeper only to have it acrobatically cleared off the line by the defender.
Ireland grabbed the vital goal just before half time when a Mark Gleghorne through ball found Eugene Magee who carried past one defender before rounding the goal keeper to score reverse stick from a near impossible angle.
It was a perfect way for Magee to open his international scoring account in his ninth appearance.
The second half started in similar fashion to the first, with Ireland in control without making their pressure count on the score sheet.
South Africa started to create more dangerous counter attacking chancing into the second half and Ireland goal keeper Charlie Henderson was glad to see a free shot at top of circle fly into the side netting. Two minutes later another promising South African attack ended when a shot flew over the cross bar from John McInroy.
In the final 10 minutes, the match tempo stretched both defences and South African goalkeeper Chris Hibbert was forced to make a fantastic save as Justin Sherriff rampaged through defence.
ÔÇ£This was a gutsy performance, we created several good chances and denied South Africa any clear cut opportunities or penalty corners. Our finishing still needs to be more clinical and we will continue to work on that moving forward,ÔÇØ coach Dave Passmore said.
