The international countries that have arrived on South African shores included the Netherlands, India, France and Germany. While the South African men’s hockey team are currently ranked 11th in the world, their competition in this tournament are all ranked in the top six besides France who are ranked 13th on the FIH men’s ranking. 

Marissa Langeni (CEO SA Hockey) joined Aaron Masemola, and she explained the journey of our hockey teams thus far since the Olympic Games in Tokyo: 

“It’s been an amazing journey ensuring that the teams could participate at the Olympic Games. We had great systems in place to combat covid-19 and our teams had a very successful campaign at the Olympics. And our performance at the African Cup of Nations gives us hope for more global participation in the months to come”.

Langeni, also shared why it is so important for our South African hockey teams to compete against the best in the world:

“Our philosophy as SA hockey is that we don’t shy away from competing against the best in the world. This is the only way that we can growth as a country and our aspiration is to remain in the top 10 in the world and in order to do that we have to play top level hockey”

Ultimately, Langeni, said that looking at the 2022 Commonwealth Games that will be hosted in Birmingham (28 July - 8 August) their focus is on reaching top 5 status:

“Our focus is on being top 5 in the world, we believe that we are competitive at that level and we want to maintain that, medals are always in reach if we’re within the top 5 countries in the world”

The game that will be closely watched at the Pro League by South African hockey fans is the game that will be played on Thursday, 17 February 2022, against Germany. This will be the first time since the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo that the Proteas will lock horns with Germany after beating them 4-3 during the group stages of the Olympics. Furthermore, this game was also voted the second best game of 2021 by FIH fans.

Upcoming fixtures at the FIH Pro Hockey League:

South Africa vs. Netherlands - Saturday, 12 February at 20:00

South Africa vs. India - Sunday, 13 February at 18:00

South Africa vs. France - Tuesday, 15 February at 20:00

South Africa vs. Germany - Thursday, 17 February at 20:00