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Orchard celebrates 200th cap in style

The Kookaburras took on Germany on Monday in what was a clash between the World Champions and the Olympic Champions at the Hero Hockey Champions Trophy at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.

The match marked a special occasion for NSWIS athlete Simon Orchard, who captained the game for the Kookaburras in his 200th match for Australia.

The game started with Australia getting a quick chance on penalty corner just as the rain began. Australia had another chance on penalty corner with five minutes to go in the first quarter. Daniel Beale injected, Tristan White trapped, and Blake Govers went for the flick, but it was a great save from German goalkeeper Nicolas Jacobi that stopped the ball from flying into the net.

The ball flew down to the German circle and a tackle from Jeremy Hayward saw the Germans get their own penalty corner opportunity. The first penalty corner missed the mark, but Florian Fuchs flicked the second into the goal following a struggle near the net.

The German team followed up quickly with a field goal from Tobias Hauke, giving the Germans a 2 nil lead going in to the quarter time break.

Australia fought back immediately in the second quarter with Flynn Ogilvie racing the ball down to Australia’s circle before passing to Glenn Turner who lightly tapped the ball past the German goalkeeper and into the net.

The ball was quickly down in Australia’s circle again, and after a pass from Daniel Beale, Tristan White smashed the ball into the net to equalise the score between Australia and Germany.

Right on the half time buzzer and Florian Fuchs found himself with room to move, scoring a field goal for Germany and giving them the lead going into half time.

The third quarter saw a lot of opportunities for the Australian team with Blake Govers nailing a penalty corner with an excellent drag flick, again levelling the score between the teams.

Aran Zalewski scored a penalty corner goal in the final quarter firmly giving Australia the win over Germany with a final score of 4 – 3.

Head Coach Graham Reid said: “I thought we started well. Unfortunately they got a goal against the run of play, then we lost a player – so we were down to ten men and then they got another goal so it was two nil which put us behind the eight ball.

“I thought we came back very well. In the second quarter we came back to two all so it was great, then we had a lapse and came back again. It was a really good effort, and I think that game will provide us with a lot of things to work on between now and Rio.”

Celebrating his 200th cap, Simon Orchard said: “It was fantastic, a great experience. There was a lot of character shown from our team; it’s a young group and sometimes that’s something which can be questioned against a top notch opponent. Going down two nil wasn’t ideal, but it showed really good qualities to come back.

“I’m really privileged to play not only one game, but 200 games for Australia and it’s great that it was against a really good opponent such as Germany as well. They have some fantastic players and no doubt we will run into them at the Olympics and it will be another crunch match so today was a really good test.”

KOOKABURRAS 4 (2)

Glenn Turner 17 (FG)

Tristan White 22 (FG)

Blake Govers 40 (PC)

Aran Zalewski 53 (PC)

Def. GERMANY 3 (3)

Florian Fuchs 12, 30 (PC, FG)

Tobias Hauke 14 (FG)

Kookaburras’ previous results:

– Nil-all draw with Great Britain on Friday.

– 4-2 victory over Korea on Saturday where NSWIS’ Blake Govers scored the opening goal in the 27th minute.

Kookaburras’ fixtures: