HOCKEY - Missing Rowsell raises Hikurangi's hopes of victory

Hikurangi coach Vicky Gribble believes the loss of high-profile defender Rhonda Rowsell may bring Maungakaramea down to size for this weekend's Northland Premier hockey semifinal.
The Maungakaramea star is en route to Belgium with fellow Northlander Charlotte Harrison to play for first-division side Braxgata until May.
"Rhonda's such a great player that they're really going to miss her," Gribble said.
The former Northland coach said the Black Sticks' refusal to pick Rowsell had backfired at the Olympic tournament in China with their defence as robust as jelly.
"There's no player in New Zealand quite like Rhonda and it drives me around the twist when I saw who they took to China ... too many of them were past it and look what happened. I hope they don't lose all their funding because of it," she said.
Gribble said Hikurangi's performance in beating Kamo High School 2-0 last week was not the kind of preparation they were looking for but, with Rowsell now gone, they were "in with a shot" at Maungakaramea.
"We've played better and been thrashed 6-0 to be honest ... [but] we're back to focusing on very basic hockey for this weekend and maybe on the day, if we do that well, we will win," she said.
Maungakaramea captain Tania Crene said they would miss the experience and on-field presence of Rowsell but with a number of other players returning from injury in recent weeks - particularly top goal scorer Anna Thorpe and defender Stephanie Hudson - she believed the team would have the depth to adapt.
Maungakaramea have won all of their encounters so far this year against Hikurangi except in their most recent when Gribble's team surprised them with a 4-1 win, with the coach playing in the heart of the defence.
Old Girls have received a boost for their semifinal match against Whangarei Girls' High School with the return of Laura Douglas into the fold after a trip to the United States.
Douglas said High School would be a handful for Old Girls to handle.
"High School are always very fit and are finishing well and have good speed up front this year, but I'm hoping we can take it to them," she said.
She said Old Girls' form had suffered from so many comings and goings this season but hoped a good training on Wednesday night would prove the basis for a win on Saturday.
"We've kind of been up and down all season and it feels like we're on an upward swing again, so the timing's good," she said.
The match starts at 3.20pm, with the Hikurangi-Maungakaramea match starting at 1.50pm.
Maungakaramea has already qualified for the mens' grand-final next week and will not doubt be spectators at the semifinal between Mangapai and Springfield tomorrow at 4.50pm.
Mangapai will start as favourites, after having won nearly all the encounters between the two sides this year, but two drawn matches mean Springfield will be in the hunt for an upset.