A Win On Day Like No Other

The Age

Wednesday March 22, 2006

By EMMA QUAYLE

NATHAN Eglington scored three goals against England yesterday, and took the Kookaburras to a semi-final. But the day meant much more to him than that.

Eglington was 10 when he threw his bag over a shoulder one morning and headed off to school. That afternoon, he was picked up by his grandparents, who had tragic news - his mother had collapsed and died of a brain aneurism in a doctor's surgery.

At once, everything changed. Eglington and his older sister, Rebekah, moved from Murwillumbah, in northern NSW, to Kingston, near the Queensland border, where they were raised by grandparents Merv and Rae Edwards.

Merv drove Nathan to and from Toowoomba for hockey, and later to Brisbane. "It was a three-hour round trip three times a week, and he was 70 years old," Eglington said. "They've been amazing for me. Without them, I wouldn't have made it."

Since then, Merv and Rae have seen Nathan play in the Netherlands, Athens, and in every Australian city except Darwin. And they were in the stands yesterday - as Australia won 5-1 - and made sure they stayed after.

"It would have been his mother's birthday today," Rae said. "It was a very important day for us. We had to give him a hug."

Meanwhile, Hockeyroos coach Frank Murray will preach patience when his team takes on England in a semi-final today.

The Australians remained undefeated with a 3-0 win over South Africa yesterday, but Murray thought they made some "dumb" decisions and wants to see fewer midfield balls go to waste as they head towards the medal matches.

England conceded three second-half goals to lose 4-0 to New Zealand. As the second-placed side, England must beat Australia to get a shot at gold.

Suzie Faulkner scraped Australia's first score from a goal-line pack after 12 minutes, but the Hockeyroos struggled to penetrate the South African defence.

They manufactured more second-half space, mostly through Nikki Hudson, and scored late goals through Nicole Arrold and Angie Skirving, but Murray said his players needed to be smarter moving forward.

"I didn't think we played all that well, but certainly it was tough to get through their defence. It was quite congested, but we didn't have the patience and we made some pretty dumb decisions as to when we went in and we need to get that sorted out," he said.

© 2006 The Age

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