It has been a case of the decline of Korfball's 'old order' during this Championships as Belgian's look to have finally lost their grip on the silver medal they have held for so long as Chinese Taipei headed for the semi finals and as Russia outclassed experienced Germany on Day 5 to look to join them as they comfortably defeated South Africa 31 - 10 on Day 5

And so it was left to England, another of Korfball's 'old order' to try to save the day in their clash with Taipei later today.

If as expected that game ends in a one sided victory for the Chinese Taipei side the face of international Korfball will have changed as many have been predicting it would for some years now.

Germany v Russia

There was little to separate the two sides in the Germany v Russia clash with Germany opening the scoring with a mid range goal from Lennart Schwirtz but Russia were quick to reply with a trademark Russian goal from the outer reaches of the court and it was not long before Russia began to look in control as they headed in into the half time break leading 6 - 3 after both teams had missed penalties.

Sergy Nizovskiy opened the scoring for Russian in the first minute of the 2nd period with a running in shot and after a German time out Heike Buesing pulled the score back to 7 - 4 from distance in the 41st minute, but that was simply the signal for the Russian's to step up a gear as 4 goals from Denis Dosugov and 3 goals from Sergey Usachev saw Russia storm into a 20 - 6 lead as the Germans simply collapsed.

With just a minute remaining as Russiareplaced Dmitry Kazachov with Alexander Vyunnik, Germany what was only their 4th goal of the game from a nid range shot from Henning Schmidt, but it was Russia who would have the last word with a running in shot goal from Alexander Vyunnik to take the final score to an impressive 21 - 4.

Dennis Dosugov and Sergey Usachev each scored 5 for Russia while Lennart Schwirtz was Germany's leading scorer with 3 goals.

England v Catalonia (Spain)

England kept their chances of a semi final place alive with a 14 - 13 win over Catalonia.  Colin Boys opted for a more experienced line up, although opted to keep Otto Fabius on the bench for this game, and there was little to separate the two in the first half which ended with England trailing by a solitary goal at 7 - 6.

In the 2nd half the Netherlands based Otto Fabius came on for Davesh Patel and the substitute soon got onto the score sheet as his mid range goal took England into a 8 - 7 lead.

Octavio Sanchez drew the Spanish side even at 8 - 8 with a running in shot goal as Catalonia made three substitions.

Goals from Rebecca Woolmer, Luke Francis and two more from mid range from substitute Otto Fabius took England into a commanding 12 - 8 lead with just 10 minutes remaining.

With 5 minutes remaining Netherlands based Jocelyn Hoffman's mid range goal looked to have sealed the game for England at 14 - 10 but three goals in the last 5 minutes, a penalty and close range goal from Luis Jurado and a last gasp running in goal from Octavio Sanchez made for a nervous few last seconds for the England side.

Jose Luis Jurado was the game's highest scorer with 4 goals while substitute Otto Fabius and Rebecca Woolmer both scored 3 for England.

Other games

In other games the momentum of the Chinese Taipei road show continued as they added neighbours Hong Kong to the list of teams they have destroyed in this tournament. This was the one sided game that all expected as Taipei went into the half time break leading 15 - 3.  The 2nd half was all Chinese Taipei and 6 goals from Hsieh Cheng Hsun and 5 each from Hung Kuan Ju and Lin Szu Yu took the final score to 30 - 6.

After their defeat at the hands of Chinese Taipei, Belgium were in the mood to take their anger and frustration out on someone, and unluckily for Australia they were the team in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Belgium were off to a flying start scoring 5 goals in the first 5 minutes and by half time they were leading 23 - 4.

The Belgians used all of their substitutes in the 2nd half, presumably so everyone could benefit from the 'therapy' with the game finally ending 41 - 9.  Resnke Dardenne scored 7 for Belgium while Annick Dekeyser and Jarrett de Vriendt both added 5.
Australia's only consolation was a hat trick of three goals from Michael Lim.

So impressive score line from the Belgians and although it no doubt eased their pain a little, in truth it changes little and having been beaten by Chinese Taipei they will be seen as beatable by the likes of the Russians.  Bearing in mind they will, barring a miracle in the semi final against the Netherlands, end up facing either Taipei or Russia in the 3rd/4th play off, coach Luc Tossens will be under no doubt that he will likely find himself in a battle to secure the bronze medal, somewhat unfamiliar territory but one the Belgians may get more used to in the coming years.

In other games the Netherlands had another comfortable victory, this time against South Africa, and they must desperately be looking forward to the competition that a semi final against the wounded Belgians offers.

The Game ended with the Dutch winning 37 - 8 with Illona van der Berg scoring 7 for the Netherlands side and Rik Brouwer and Johanna de Kork both scoring 6.  Elsandri van Niekerk was South African's leading scorer with 3.

The Czech Republic also had a comfortable victory against international newcomers China and now find themselves able to finish 5th in the tournament at very best.

Yan Zheng got China off to a flying start with a mid range gaol after 3 minutes but 4 goals in 5 minutes from the Czech's placed them firmly in the driving seat.  The half time score was 10 - 5 and the game eventually ended in a 24 - 10 Czech victory.

Roman Veznik was the Czech Republic's leading scorer with 7 goals while Yang Zhen and Ding Ma both added three for China

So with three of the 4 semi finalist decided all eyes will now be on the clash between Chinese Taipei and England on Day 5 although the smart money appears to be all on a Taipei victory