FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023 : Australia thump France by 8-0

2 Kookaburras get Hat-trick in their opening match against France

The FIH Men’s Hockey World cup 2023 is underway at Bhuvaneshwar and 2 matches have already been played. In the opening game, Argentina met South Africa and the encounter was a low-scoring game as the South Americans won by 1-0.

However, the second match was high scoring but was also a one-sided contest. The mighty Australians slammed France by an unbelievable scoreline of 8-0 at Bhuvaneshwar’s Kalinga Stadium.

The Aussie goal fest began in the first-quarter through Man of the match Tom Craig as he opened the scoring in the 8th minute. The Kookaburras kept getting penalty corners but France’s defense in the first 15 minutes was really solid.

In the second-quarter, France won 3 back-to-back penalty corners but failed to convert any of those chances. Later on, Australia turned defense into attack as they scored 3 goals in within the space of 12 minutes through Ogilvie Flynn’s 1 and Jeremy Hayward’s 2 successful attempts.

In the 3rd Quarter Tom Craig scored his 2nd goal in the 31st minute followed by Jeremy Hayward’s hat-trick in the 39th minute to make it 6-0. Tom Craig scored the second hat-trick of the match and tournament to take Australia ahead by 7-0.

Wickham scored the final goal of the match to seal the game by 8-0.