As Welsh competitors continue their countdown to the start of the Commonwealth Games in Australia, Dai Sport’s man on the Gold Coast, Ian Gordon, talks to Wales hockey coach Zak Jones ahead of their tournament.

Zak Jones says Wales are relishing their Commonwealth Games campaign and discovering their standing among the hockey elite.

The men’s squad launch their Gold Coast campaign on April 5th against Pakistan whose world ranking of 13 puts them 11 places ahead of Wales.

Then comes tests against Malaysia (12th), India (6th) before many of the squad face their club-mates in a final pool game clash with England (7th).

“The beauty of us coming here is looking forward to that challenge of playing teams ranked higher than us in the world,” said Head Coach Jones, whose squad beat World No 11 Canada 4-1 in a practice game at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre on Friday.

A MASSIVE #ThankYou to all those @HociCymruMen & @HociCymruWomen super fans out there for sending your #GoodLuck messages in..here’s a little thanks back…

Music courtesy of the very talented @DanielleJ0rdan family pic.twitter.com/uEm6MLKKcq

— Hockey Wales (@HockeyWales) March 23, 2018

“We don’t play them that often so it’s a good opportunity to know where we sit.

“We feel like we can compete with the teams above us which is what the warm-up games here have shown, but we don’t really know.

“It’s difficult to set a target. In an ideal world you want to be competing for medals. Is that realistic? The bottom line is we don’t know as we don’t play these teams that often.

“I’d like to think we can at least challenge in our pool games then see what happens.”

While England will be all too familiar, it is the contrasting Asian style that Wales will have to counter against Pakistan, Malaysia and India.

Former Wales skipper Jones added: “They play a different style and the challenge for our guys is we don’t get the opportunity to play against the Asian style that often as we tend to play in Europe a lot more.

“That will be the real challenge seeing how we can manage and compete and get used to that style.

“We played Malaysia last year in London just in a one-off. It was a good experience for our guys to get a look. They beat us 4-1 but it was relatively close until the last when we took our keeper off.

“But we were competitive so we are really looking forward to seeing how we get on.

“If you summed it up, the Asian style is probably more carrying, relying on individual skills.

“They’ve got guys who can eliminate you and carry the ball really well while the European style is probably a bit more patient, a bit more passing based.

“They probably get the ball into the circle maybe earlier than European teams would and that will be a challenge for us, that we need to meet.”

With many of the squad based in and playing for clubs in England, the game on April 10 – which could determined if Wales qualify for the medal rounds or go into the classification matches – that is sure to be keenly contested.

Great run out for the @HociCymruWomen today at @GC2018 with a practice match against NSW | 2 – 0 winners in tough conditions | thanks to NSW for the game pic.twitter.com/2J2Pot2eiK

— Hockey Wales (@HockeyWales) March 31, 2018

“England – Wales is always going to be a big game in whatever sport at whatever time,” added Jones. “It will have a bit more edge to it. To be fair to them, they are playing really well at the moment.

“They are looking sharp and it will be a massive challenge but the guys will be looking forward to that.

“England are all professional, centralised guys. But our guys know them really well from playing with them or against them at club level.

“In some ways also there is not a huge amount of pressure on us in this tournament as there are no ranking points which are really important.

“They dictate whether we come to these tournaments in future, where we’re ranked in tournaments which again has a big bearing on who you play.

Wales have shot up eight places in the rankings over the last few months – more than any other nation – testament to developments off the pitch in performance support and coaching.

In a further boost Swansea-born defender Dan Kyriakides became Wales’ first Great Britain capped player since David Hacker in 2000 while several are in the GB development programme.

And that – reckons Jones – has left the Wales squad in Australia in better shape than ever.

He added: “I am really pleased with how it’s gone so far. We took a few days to get our feet on the ground but have had games against South Africa and Canada.

“We’ve played some decent stuff and scored some good goals. The boys are looking sharp which is positive.

“They are such a good bunch of guys, a really tight knit group. Everyone is really together and as coaches we feel lucky to have got the guys we have.

“Ultimately they are amateur athletes but they put so much time and effort in and hopefully we are starting to see it come to fruition on the pitch.

“It does take a huge amount of commitment. This is definitely the fittest squad we’ve had, the best shape it’s been in and that’s testament to them finding time amid their work, studies, life and commitment to their clubs.

“The last four years, all the programmes from the junior up have stepped up a notch. That has a direct impact on the players and what they can produce on the pitch.

“That’s all we can ask of them really. We would like more games, that’s the bottom line.

“As a coach you always want a bit more time with the players but we will maximise the amount of time we have with them here.”