The Black Sticks’ heartbreaking quarterfinal loss to Germany at the Rio Olympics was almost six months ago now but it still haunts Inglis.
The 26-year-old has been back in the region enjoying a holiday in Central Otago while his club side in Belgium is on a mid-season break.
But that quarterfinal is never far from his thoughts. Inglis had popped in a goal earlier in the game and New Zealand led 2-0 with five minutes remaining.The team’s defence had been tremendous but the Germans staged a remarkable comeback with consecutive goals from penalty-corner strikes by Moritz Furste. Then Florian Fuchs scored in the final second to seal a dramatic 3-2 victory.
"I’ve thought about it quite a lot," Inglis said.
"I just don’t think we had our mindset right going into the game.
"We prepared really well to be chasing the game but we did not do enough work on actually leading and how we were going to close a game out.
"That was definitely a massive error on our part but also a little bit of that Kiwi mentality where we expect ourselves to be the underdogs."
Inglis felt during that final five minutes individuals became paralysed and "there were less guys keen to receive balls under pressure".
"It was almost as if people did not want to make a mistake so I won’t grab the ball.
"But obviously, Germany are a great side and hold possession of the ball really well.
"You have to give them credit for what the did, too."
Inglis will return to Belgium on Monday where he plays for Braxgata Hockey Club.
The team made a dreadful start to the season. It lost its first six matches but has rebounded with six consecutive wins.
Inglis is based in Antwerp and has resumed study this year. He is doing a postgraduate MBA online through Edinburgh Business School, in preparation for life after hockey, not that Inglis has any plans to give the game away anytime soon.
He wants one more crack at Olympic glory and is targeting the Tokyo Games in 2020.
He is unlikely to be turning out for Southern this year because the National Hockey League clashes with the European season and he can not afford to lose that income.
"I imagine there will be about 10 guys missing from the New Zealand domestic competition, which is a real shame."
