Sam Ward broke Welsh hearts as he completed a hat-trick to complete a magnificent English fightback to turn a two goal deficit into a 3-2 win to keep his side on course for a Commonwealth semi-final berth in the men’s hockey.
In their first competitive meeting since 2002, England were rattled by Wales early on and conceded two brilliant goals from Luke Hawker and Ben Francis as the men carried on their good work from the game against India.
Having seen the women’s side set the tone at the Gold Coast with their 3-2 opening match victory over the Indians, the men have also put in some inspired performances that have carried on the improvements made since earning promotion to the European League top tier last year.
England had to wait until three minutes before the end for Ward to grab the winner with a shot that was almost saved. There was no score in the opening quarter, but Wales struck twice in five minutes.
FT England 3 – 2 Wales | Heartbreak for @HociCymruMen as England snatch it at the death | huge performance from Wales to be proud of @TeamWales #GC2018Hockey
— Hockey Wales (@HockeyWales) April 10, 2018
The first came when England were down to 10 men with Ollie Willars off for a yellow card offence, Hawker lunging to steer a cross high into the back of the net, and then Francis converted an innovative penalty corner to send Wales into dream land.
With 17 places separating the two teams in the official Hockey World Rankings – England are seventh and Wales 24th – it was expected to be a comfortable win for the English, but it turned out to be anything but that.
They picked up their first goal in the third quarter and then Ward added two more in the final quarter to earn the victory.
If that was a relief for England, it was devastating for Wales having worked so hard to get into a position to get at least a share of the points against the auld enemy. But they earned the full respect of their opponents and emerged with a share of the credit from a much closer game than expected.
It was their third defeat in four games in Pool B and means they will now play off against either Scotland, Canada or South Africa in the ninth or 10th place match on Friday.