GREAT BRITAIN’S men are tantalisingly close to a place in the FIH Pro League Grand Final, as they face New Zealand on their big day at the Twickenham Stoop on Sunday.

The 14,800-seat home of Harlequins rugby club in West London is the home for GB’s men’s and women’s final games of the campaign, with Danny Kerry’s men needing a win, while hoping Argentina lose to world champions Belgium to clinch the fourth and final play-off spot — any other scenario would lead to Los Leones qualifying alongside Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands.

GB have been boosted by the recent return of all-time leading scorer Ashley Jackson for his first games since the Rio Olympics three years ago.

And the 31-year-old made an immediate impact in the 2-2 draw against the Dutch last Friday, in which Britain lost the shootout, with a sublime assist to Chris Griffiths for his team’s opening goal.

“He sees things that other people don’t and that’s the reason we want him in this team,” captain Adam Dixon said. “We just want him to be himself and play with that freedom. 

“We’re playing in a totally different style to how we were playing in Rio, when Ashley played his last game, so he’ll have a bit of a learning curve, but I think you can see from [the Netherlands game] he’s more than capable of stepping into that role.”

His return couldn’t have come at a better time, with fellow forwards Will Calnan and Sam Ward injured for the match, which starts at 2pm.

“You can’t ever plan for injuries, but we’re creating a squad that’s capable of bouncing back from those setbacks,” Dixon added. “That’s in large part down to Danny putting faith in guys like Tom Sorsby, who just slots in and looks like he’s had 50 international caps already, when he’s only had five or six. 

“We’re building a strong squad and competition for international places is tough. You’ve got to be on it in training and in games or you won’t get picked.”

And Dixon is looking forward to the big stage of the Stoop after playing at the 4,000-capacity Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in east London’s Olympic Park.

“Moving forward, this really is a trial,” the 32-year-old Beeston defender said. “If it’s a success and we get loads of people through the gates, create a good atmosphere and put on a good show, it raises the bar.

“We could go to anywhere in the world to an appropriate-sized stadium and chuck a hockey pitch down and give it a good go.

“We want to play in front of big crowds, you dream of it as a little kid. It’s great at Lee Valley and hopefully the Stoop is a level up from that.”

While the men have exceeded expectations, the same can’t be said for the Olympic champion women, whose match against the Black Sticks starts at 4.30pm.

“There’s no point in lying, it hasn’t been a successful season for us in the Pro League,” said defender Anna Toman after they put in a battling performance in their 1-0 defeat to world champions the Netherlands last weekend in a rematch of the Rio 2016 gold-medal match. 

“We’ve been really inconsistent. We’ve shown we can step up and play against the best in the world. But then we had a performance like we did [the previous week, when they conceded four goals in each match in losing to Germany and Australia].

“It’s been a real journey for us. We’ve come together as a team and we’ve stuck together and that we can put together a performance like we did [against the Dutch] when we are in a bit of a rut, is really good for us. 

“We have to go out there [on Sunday] and we have to be as positive. [Even though] we’re not playing the best in the world, we have to go and put out the same kind of performance.”

Toman has, like most players, enjoyed the positives of the Pro League, but says there are some kinks the FIH need to iron out.

“It’s been brilliant to have been playing this many home games,” she said. “It was a little bit more challenging towards the beginning of the year with how much travelling we were doing, but we train to play matches and we were getting matches regularly. 

“The amount of travel, we would prefer not to do, but the second half of our Pro League, at Lee Valley, has been absolutely brilliant.
“They’re talking about making it a home or away league, instead of home and away, so you have certain teams you’ll play away and certain teams you’ll play at home. 

“I think that will be a lot better, because there are teams you’ll have to go to each year and you won’t have to play eight teams away, so if you look at the planner and think: ‘We’ve only got these trips’ that will be better for us.

“It was all away games right at the beginning and it was a struggle for us. Because we weren’t winning games it was quite difficult, but I do think we’ve done well to stick together no matter what rut we’re in.”