Friday, March 30, 2007

Jolly `Kiwi' giant Shaw returning to haunt Malaysia

09/01/2002

REMEMBER Hayden Shaw, the 6'5" giant from New Zealand?
For those who have forgotten, he single handedly distroyed any hope
Malaysia had of making good in the Junior World Cup in Hobart, Tasmania in
October.
And he has been named to haunt Malaysia in the Six-Nation on Jan 18-26
at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
Malaysia played one of their best matches against New Zealand in the
first round of the Junior World Cup and there were fireworks as the burly
Kiwi defender dismantled Malaysia.
The match ended in a 3-2 defeat for Malaysia but enroute, Malaysian
skipper Chua Boon Huat received a yellow card, Jiva Mohan received a knock
on his head from Shaw and brother Jiwa was also yellow carded for getting
into a shoving match with the Kiwi giant.
Chua verbally abused the match umpire after the match and was suspended
for the next match against Argentina.
It was downhill for Malaysia after that and they never recovered and
lost 5-0 to Argentina the next day.
Chua and Jiwa are in the Malaysian squad and it will be interesting to
see how they handle the Kiwi this time around.
Midfielder Ryan Archibald, who skippered the New Zealand Junior World
Cup team, is also in the squad and he will be a joy to watch.
Other than Shaw, Peter Stafford is the other newcomer to the senior
team.
Making a return to the team is England based Ken Robinson who last
played for New Zealand in the 1998 Commonwealth Games.
However, three players who played in the World Cup qualifiers at
Edinburgh were dropped.
They are Dean Couzins and Alpesh Puna while another player, Wayne
McIndoe, was unavailable for selection.
The New Zealand squad for the Six-Nation isn't the World Cup squad.
The final composition of the World Cup team will come from an extended
squad of 24, which includes Dean Couzins, Alpesh Puna, Dharmesh Puna,
Casey Henwood, Gareth Brooks and Lloyd Stephenson.
New Zealand: Ryan Archibald, Dion Gosling, Bevan Hari, Brett Leaver, Ken
Robinson, Simon Towns (capt), Paul Woolford, Michael Bevin, Hayden Shaw,
Peter Stafford, Hymie Gill, David Kosoof, Darren Smith, Blair Hopping,
Phillip Burrows, Umesh Parag, Mitesh Patel.
(END)