Belgium men and Australia women enjoyed success in their final few days of preparation before the Rabobank Hockey World Cup. The four men's and four women's teams taking part in the Ergo Masters Four Nations will all be participating in The Hague in just 12 days time.
Four Nations - Dusseldorf
Belgium enjoyed a successful Four Nations Tournament in Dusseldorf as they emerged top of the table after three matches against fellow World Cup rivals England, Germany and The Netherlands. Over the course of the three matches, Mark Lammers team beat The Netherlands 2-1 and England 3-2 and drew with Germany 2-2.
While the result means Belgium can go into the Rabobank World Cup with their confidence high, comments on Twitter from some of the players indicated that the Red Lions are not letting the victories go to their heads. Xavier Reckinger tweeted: "3-2. Good win over England Hockey makes us winners of Ergo Masters. Two wins in three weeks, doesn't say much, but nice anyway."
Four Nations - Bremen
Australia were the emphatic winners of the women's Four Nations in Bremen. The Hockeyroos beat England 4-2, and Japan 6-1 before drawing 2-2 with Germany.
And there was further reason for green and gold celebrations as Australian captain Madonna Blyth became the outright second highest capped Hockeyroo in history. Playing in her 280th international, she overtook Rechelle Hawkes’ 279 games. Only Nikki Hudson’s 303 match record lies ahead for the midfielder.
With just 12 days to go to the start of the tournament, coach to the Australia women Adam Commens said: “I’ve been quite satisfied with our performances this week. As far as starts of tours go it’s been one of our better starts to a tour. It’s satisfying to win the tournament. Yesterday, against Japan we played fantastic attacking hockey whereas today was a bit more of a dogfight.”