Hockey: England show fine form to thrash old foe

Sporting contests between Germany and England are usually something special and yesterday's 7-2 victory by Trish Heberle's side in their 5th-8th play-off at the women's World Cup here was no exception.

England's success assures them of a place in next year's élite Champions Trophy in Sydney. Additionally, they have now achieved their sixth-place Lottery target, and today they play South Korea in the fifth-place play-off.

England were off to a golden start yesterday when Rachel Walker hit home England's opening goal from the edge of the circle inside two minutes.

The Germans responded by speeding up their game, Heike Latzsch's penetrating runs down the right punishing England's defence with two scrambled goals to go into a 2-1 lead in the 17th minute. England, showing plenty of mental toughness, then took the game to Germany and created numerous scoring opportunities. Nevertheless, they went into the interval still trailing.

England's second-half performance was stunning. Goals from Lucilla Wright, Anna Bennett, Jane Smith and Denise Marston-Smith inside the opening 11 minutes gave them a 5-2 lead. By now the Germans were completely demoralised with Jane Smith later completing her hat-trick and the scoreline.

Heberle, who earlier in the tournament had been critical of her team's commitment, was delighted with yesterday's performance. "It was an excellent team performance," she said. "It equalled our Commonwealth Games performance in Manchester, when we beat Australia. In the second half we were just fantastic."

In additions, as Heberle put it: "We were against the history books." Wins over Germany have been few and far between; for something comparable look back to 1953 and England's 8-0 win at Folkestone.

Argentina de-throned the world champions, Australia, with a 1-0 victory in the semi-final and in tomorrow's final will face the Netherlands, who last night beat China 1-0.

Japan dominated their game against Scotland to win 3-0. Now Scotland must play the United States for 11th or 12th place – their worst ever World Cup placing.

WOMEN'S WORLD CUP (Perth, Aus): 13th-16th places: South Africa 4 Russia 1; Ukraine 4 Ireland 3. 9th-12th: Japan 3 Scotland 0; New Zealand 0 United States 1 (golden goal). 5th-8th: England 7 Germany 2; Spain 0 South Korea 2. Semi-finals: Argentina 1 Australia 0; Netherlands 1 China 0.