South Africa produced their most complete performance of the competition to defeat Austria 4-2, which guaranteed them of their best ever finishing position at a Hockey Junior World Cup in Lucknow, India.

The day proved to be a fruitful one for South Africa, who recorded this victory to set up a meeting with New Zealand in the playout for ninth and tenth place.

It means that, at worst, South Africa will finish tenth, bettering their previous highest finish of 11th, which was achieved at the 2001 event in Hobart, Australia.

Austria took the lead with a stunning solo goal courtesy of Franz Lindengrun, but strikes from Matthew de Sousa and Courtney Halle put South Africa ahead at half time. Ryan Crowe made it 3-1 before Leon Thörnblom cut South Africa’s lead to just one goal with ten minutes remaining.

However, a 68th minute field goal from Nqobile Ntuli put the result beyond all doubt.

South Africa’s opponents in the 9-10 classification match, New Zealand, claimed a 3-1 win over Malaysia to force their opponents into the 11-12 play-off game with Austria.

The game between South Africa and New Zealand will be played on Saturday 17 December.

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