Hockey: Black Sticks women humming in The Hague

The Black Sticks can't wait to get their opening World Cup hockey match out of the way in The Netherlands from tomorrow.

"Everyone's pretty excited. We've had a couple of weeks of build up so we're wanting to get on with it," Emily Naylor, of Hawke's Bay, said last night from The Hague.

The Mark Hager-coached New Zealand women play Belgium first up at 11pm tomorrow (NZ time) at the multi-use Kyocera Stadium.

"We've been training there and it's a sellout crowd. They've done a pretty good job of promoting it [the World Cup] with big billboards and a lot of hype," said Naylor, adding the stadium seats 15,000 fans and is the home ground of Dutch soccer team ADO Den Haag.

"It's an incredible stadium. I'd say it's up there with the Olympic stadiums I've played at. It's quite neat in that it looks almost covered and sheltered."

It is a far cry from the Six Nations tournament staged in Hastings as part of the inaugural Hawke's Bay Festival early this year but the defender/midfielder said that could all change with more seating at the HB Regional Sports Park and TV coverage.

"Over here they will televise to 180 countries. The games will be watched in Africa for the first time, in a country where they don't play much hockey," she said.

Ranked fifth in the world, the Kayla Whitelock-captained Kiwis should have an ideal dress rehearsal to the cup against the world No12 Belgians in pool A.

They shouldn't work up too much sweat against No8 Korea and No9 Japan either but it is imperative to know the Asians left some key players behind when they competed in the Bay.

The stiff challenge will kick in when they face hosts and world No1 The Netherlands on Friday, June 6, before crossing sticks with world No4 Australia on Monday, June 9.

The Dutch weren't at the Six Nations here but Australia dominated Hager's women although it's vital to note the Kiwis also injected youth in nutting out a final squad for the cup.

The playoffs begin for the women's teams on Friday, June 13, with the Colin Batch-coached Black Sticks men, including vice-captain Shea McAleese, of Napier, will be hoping to be in the business end of the cup the following day from pool A. The Kiwis are ranked No6 in the world.

The Sticks women spent 10 days preparing and acclimatising at Linden village, about 20 minutes drive out of The Hague. They beat England 3-1 and drew 1-1 with Germany in warm ups.

"I caught up with some of my old club teammates from HGC [HOC Gazellen-Combinatie] so a lot of them will come to support us," she said.

"This week we've moved to a beautiful hotel near the seaside in The Hague so it's been great."

The 28-year-old from Kereru, near Hastings, is the most-capped women's Black Stick (240) in a side that has nine changes from the team that missed out on a podium place at the 2012 London Olympics.

Striker Katie Glynn is the team's leading scorer with 69 goals.

Since London, they have played 56 tests, winning 28, losing 18 and registering 10 stalemates.

The 1986 gold medal-winning former Australian player, Hager, is at his seventh World Cup and is not shy in the winning department, adding a silver medal as assistant coach with the Australia men's team in 2006 to two bronzes.

The Kiwis finished seventh in the last World Cup where he was also coach.

The men, with Dean Couzins and Phil Burrows as co-captains, have an unchanged, experienced line up from the one that won five out of six games at the recent Champions League in Malaysia.

Central Mavericks midfielder McAleese, 29, is two games away from his 200th cap.