Wales have 'opportunity to do something special'

Wales head coach Danny Newcombe says his side have the opportunity "to do something special" as they bid to qualify for the Hockey World Cup for the second time in their history.

He led the side who made their World Cup debut in India in 2023, finishing tied for 11th.

Newcombe called their pool "a group of death" as they suffered defeats by England, Spain and India before beating France in a penalty shootout.

His side are in Santiago where they will face hosts Chile, France and Scotland in their pool as they attempt to qualify for a second time.

Newcombe says Wales will draw on results from their EuroHockey Championship II win in the summer of 2025, where they beat Switzerland, Croatia, Italy and Ireland as they claimed the title.

Those performances secured Wales' spot in World Cup qualifying and Europe's 2027 top flight.

"It was more evidence that when it really matters with this group they can get it done," he said.

"We've got a history of winning really tight games in important tournaments at key moments to get us over the line.

"That's something this group has got a history of and I think that matters."

After defying the odds to make the last World Cup, the Wales head coach is keen that his side give the best account of themselves possible.

"If we qualify again it will be less of a surprise and the focus will be on how do we do ourselves justice here," he said.

"We're at a crescendo with this group, we've got an opportunity to do something really special these next two years."

Wales need to finish in the top two in their pool to ensure they can earn one of the qualification spots.

Defender Nic Morgan: "We've got Chile in our first game, a massive game, home nation, so that's going to be tough.

"They're going to be pretty excited to come out and play against us, but I think it's a good way to get our confidence up.

"If we have a good game against them, we should put a few past them and then look forward towards France and Scotland.

"We should have the confidence to go through and hopefully win both those games as well and qualify."

The 24-year-old says it would mean "everything" to qualify for this summer's tournament.

"There's not many chances you get to go out to Holland or Belgium and play some top level hockey with thousands of people, that is ridiculous," he added.

"The likelihood is if we qualify, we'll probably come up against one of those top teams in their home nation so that experience in itself for some young guys in the team will be massive to push forward the next 10 years of our careers.

"We've also got a few older lads who will probably be looking to step away from the system in the next couple of years and it'll be another highlight and to be part of that with them is massive for us."

Wales men squad: Toby Reynolds-Cotterill (GK), Rhys Payne (GK), Daniel Kyriakides, Hywel Jones, Owen Sutton, Gareth Furlong, Alf Dinnie, Jacob Draper (C), Rhodri Furlong, Dale Hutchinson, Rhys Bradshaw, Fred Newbold, Gareth Griffiths, Ben Francis (C), Nic Morgan, Jack Pritchard, Jolyon Morgan, Sam Welsh, Jonny Fleck, Ben Wall.