David Chappell

From David Chappell in Sydney

Great Britain bade farewell to the women’s Olympic tournament and Jane Sixsmith to international hockey today with a 2-0 defeat by Germany. It left the team in eighth place and their most experienced player goalless in the tournament.

Disappointment dogged the British to the bitter end. Sixsmith, 33, as ever worked tirelessly and selflessly up front but has existed on meagre rations here. Chasing long hopeful passes upfield has done scant justice to her skills and she seldom looked in the six matches as if she would add to her total of 104 international goals.

She bows out with more than 320 caps after the least rewarding of her four Olympic tournaments. “This was probably my last international match,” Sixsmith said. “I came out here not quite 100 per cent convinced.” But she was fooling nobody. “I have no immediate plans - I’d like to spend a bit of time at home,” she said with a broad grin.

The players were planning a presentation to her tonight and Jon Royce, the Britain head coach, paid tribute. “She has been the public face of hockey for at least a decade, probably more. She’s been a great and loyal servant to the game.” Also looking forward to devoting her time to her family is Pauline Stott, the captain, who did all she could to rouse her team for one last effort.

Britain battled gamely to the end but had nobody of the quality of the Germany match-winner, Natascha Keller, to break through a physically imposing defence. Keller scored a brilliant individual goal in the first-half, cutting in from the right and firing a reverse shot past Hilary Rose. She then bamboozled the defence to earn a penalty stroke, which Britta Becker dispatched confidently 18 minutes from the end.

Failing to beat Germany today cost Britain an automatic place in the next World Cup and they now face an expensive qualifying campaign. Royce has been emphasising the need for his players to gain tournament experience and that, at least, will help to provide it. “I have learned here how important is the athlete’s mind and the strength and purpose to be a champion,” Royce said. “We need to learn to play when the chips are down.”

Royce is fond of talking about the need for his players to handle the pressure but he has set a poor example. He watches matches from the stands because he becomes too agitated on the touchline and has been involved in two incidents after losing his temper.

It emerged today that as well as receiving a one-match ban and a reprimand from the British Olympic Association (BOA) for swearing at a female doping control operative, he was also reported by a senior British official for kicking angrily at a lift at the State Hockey Centre. Both issues were dealt with at the same time and the BOA advised Royce not to comment.

Royce described his team’s Olympic campaign as a “massive learning curve”, pointing out a willingness to work hard and improve as the main plus point and a need for better drilling of skills as the weakness.

His players echoed the sentiments. “I still believe we are the best-prepared team to have left Great Britain,” Sixsmith said, while Mel Clewlow, who hit the post from a short corner yesterday, talked of competitive environment and the obvious need to avoid taking two games to get going before playing their best hockey. “At least we have closed the gap on the other top sides,” Clewlow said. “We lost 8-1 to Australia in the Commonwealth Games final; here it was only 2-1.”

Like Britain, Australia have improved as the tournament has gone on but they were already the dominant force in women’s hockey. The Hockeyroos are expected to strike gold on Friday against an Argentina team which roared into the final with a 7-1 demolition of New Zealand. Holland meet Spain in the bronze medal match.

The British players will be among the 15,000 crowd imploring the host nation to become the first team to retain an Olympic hockey title for 44 years and the first women’s team ever. They should learn from the experience.