Hockey | Spar South African Indoor Hockey Captain Jamie Southgate Interview

Jamie Southgate  – Captain of the SPAR South African Women's Indoor Hockey Team  

• SPAR South African women primed to succeed at Africa indoor hockey showdown

• Spot in 2025 World Cup beckons for Southgate's team

TUESDAY, 21 MAY 2024

Swakopmund, Namibia: SPAR South African indoor hockey women's captain Jamie Southgate will be relying on the experience the team have gained in recent times as they target a qualifying spot in next year's FIH Indoor World Cup in Croatia.

The national team are currently in Swakopmund in Namibia, preparing for the Indoor Africa Cup which will be played from May 23 to 26.

The top two sides from the women's continental tournament will qualify for the world event and Southgate said they were fully primed to achieve that objective.

The 26-year-old defender from Cape Town is the team's most experienced player with 92 caps, and five other members of the squad have 50 or more international matches under their belts.

"Yes, experience does really count a lot in big moments and having experienced players in the team allows for younger players to feed off them," Southgate said.

"This helps players to learn how to manage key moments of the game and it will also help us to work out how to manage ourselves in a long tournament environment."

The SPAR South Africa team produced one of their stellar performances by finishing fourth in the 2023 Indoor World Cup, which was hosted in Pretoria, and they have continued to underline their growing prowess.

"Maintaining positive results and constant team growth outside of the World Cup tournaments proves the true strength of a team," Southgate said.

"We competed in several tournaments after the World Cup when the squad contained many debutants and those all produced fruitful results.

"Thus, further improving, preparing and broadening the squad members' eligibility for World Cup selection has been one way we've begun to build."

The SPAR South African team were crowned champions in the Tuanku Zara International Cup in November, when they defeated Switzerland in a dramatic penalty shootout in the final and were runners-up to African rivals Namibia in the inaugural Kathea Energy Nkosi Cup in Cape Town in December.

Jamie Southgate  – Captain of the SPAR South African Women's Indoor Hockey Team  

Southgate feels there has been a turnaround in belief in the South African camp since last year's World Cup.

"Not realising the true capabilities of the team going into the World Cup, and subsequently achieving a fourth-place finish, led to a shift in mindset and attitude towards South African women's indoor hockey," she said.

"Believing we can be the best and striving for constant improvement are the areas of focus for us heading into this Africa Cup.

"Having a tendency to doubt our abilities and feeling inferior to other stronger countries remain challenges we wish to overcome."

One of their big hurdles is overcoming the host nation, to whom they lost in the Kathea Energy Nkosi Cup final. But she knows they also need to stay level-headed in their pursuit of glory.

"We haven't won an Africa Cup since 2014, making Namibia our biggest competitor," Southgate said.

"As individuals we have been given set objectives over and above the team's ultimate goal of winning the Africa Cup.

"This provides many opportunities for constant successes, allowing for a holistic approach in which expectations don't exceed our realistic standards of achievement, but also leave room for incredible performances to take place.

"We are in a position to go to the World Cup and capitalising on this is one of our main goals.

"To achieve that we need to be effective for the full 40 minutes and not just in patches of the game, limiting our error count in all our matches."

Images by Zac Zinn

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