Hawes caused the South Africans endless problems

Britain needed a 4-0 win to progress and Hawes made sure they did it by scoring from three penalty corners.

Danny Hall, Mark Pearn and Graham Moodie scored field goals in-between each of Hawes' strikes with the last two goals in the last two minutes.

They are now in Thursday's cross-over game against Belgium, with the victor guaranteed a place at the Games.

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Great Britain manager David Whittle paid tribute to his side after their superb display.

"I've been through three Olympic campaigns and it was the best we have ever started a game, within 15 minutes we were 3-0 up," he said.

"Some of the goals were outstanding, fantastic, and we have now got to build on that."

Their mental attitude when they went out there was unbelievable GB manager David Whittle

Whittle also revealed that before the match coach Jason Lee showed a video of all the goals scored in his five month reign.

"He showed it to them and said: 'These are the kind of goals you have been scoring for me. Go out and do it again' and I believe they were listening," said Whittle.

"We also got to grips with a lot of the guys who had never been in this situation before.

"We said to them: 'This has happened before, it will happen again, and it is not for the faint-hearted' and as a result their mental attitude when they went out there was unbelievable."