{"id":5199,"date":"2026-01-23T21:02:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=5199"},"modified":"2026-01-23T21:02:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:02:49","slug":"defensive-grit-and-growth-as-netherlands-take-second-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/23\/defensive-grit-and-growth-as-netherlands-take-second-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Defensive Grit and Growth as Netherlands Take Second Test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">The <\/span><span class=\"s5\">Netherlands men&#8217;s national hockey team<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> completed a two match series victory with a 4 0 win over the <\/span><span class=\"s5\">South Africa men&#8217;s national hockey team<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> in the second test at a vibrant <\/span><span class=\"s5\">Hartleyvale<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> Stadium<\/span><span class=\"s5\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">The evening also marked a special occasion for South Africa captain <\/span><span class=\"s7\">Sam Mvimbi<\/span><span class=\"s5\">, who led his side on his birthday in front of another passionate Cape Town crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">The first half was an outstanding defensive display from the South Africans, who denied the Dutch time and again through disciplined structure and committed work without the ball. Goalkeeper <\/span><span class=\"s7\">Cullin<\/span><span class=\"s7\"> de Jager<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> was central to that effort, producing a number of high quality saves as the visitors searched for an opening. South Africa also created opportunities of their own, earning several penalty corners, but will be disappointed not to have found a breakthrough from the set piece.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">Despite sustained Dutch pressure, South Africa held firm through the opening half, keeping the <\/span><span class=\"s5\">scoreline<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> tight and giving the local fans plenty to cheer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">The breakthrough finally came early in the second half when <\/span><span class=\"s7\">Miles <\/span><span class=\"s7\">Bukkens<\/span><span class=\"s5\">converted a penalty corner to make it 1 0. The South Africans continued to show attacking intent, with <\/span><span class=\"s7\">Litha<\/span><span class=\"s7\"> Kraai<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> and <\/span><span class=\"s7\">Zenani Kraai<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> providing energy and moments of excitement, but the score remained unchanged heading into the final quarter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">Early in the fourth quarter the Netherlands doubled their lead through a <\/span><span class=\"s5\">Reyenga<\/span><span class=\"s5\">penalty corner, before adding further gloss to the result. <\/span><span class=\"s7\">Bukkens<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> struck again from another set piece and Dutch captain <\/span><span class=\"s7\">Thierry Brinkman<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> completed the scoring to seal a 4 0 victory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">While the result favoured the visitors, there were many positives for the South Africans across the series, particularly in defensive resilience and intensity against one of the best teams in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">A heartfelt thank you to the Cape Town crowd for the tremendous support across both matches.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Netherlands men&#8217;s national hockey team completed a two match series victory with a 4 0 win over the South Africa men&#8217;s national hockey team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/23\/defensive-grit-and-growth-as-netherlands-take-second-test\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hockey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5200,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199\/revisions\/5200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}