Blair Hopping

One of the world’s best defenders and highly regarded by his international opponents, Blair is the backbone of the Black Sticks defence. Making his debut for the Black Sticks in 2000, he went on to play a major role in the silver medal effort in Manchester as a left half and in recent years has become one of the very best full backs ever to play for New Zealand. A player with amazing ability, he is able to shut down some of the best attacking teams in world hockey and has great composure on the ball when getting his team out of some sticky situations. His tendency to pop up in the right place is easily his best asset and he will be one of the Black Sticks major weapons in Beijing.