Northland to host Black Sticks in February

Whangarei is part of New Zealand's "Golden Summer of Hockey" with the Black Sticks men set to face Belgium and the women taking on South Korea at Rosvall ITM Hockey Centre.
Hockey Northland will host two double headers on February 8 and February 10. The games are part of a series of international matches against Korea, Belgium and Japan taking place in Whangarei as well as Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga, between February 5-22.
Hockey Northland chief executive Grant McLeod said hosting the internationals was great for the region.
"It is good for Northland to watch international sport and it's good for hockey. It is also very unusual to get both the Black Sticks men and women's teams playing at the same venue due to the timing of their very different campaigns, so we are quite lucky," he said.
The 14 international matches scheduled during the New Zealand summer were a deliberate ploy by Hockey New Zealand to push the sport and raise its profile to a higher level, McLeod said.
It has been a massive year for the Black Sticks, who contested the World Cup, Champions Trophy and Commonwealth Games. "We saw a great deal of hockey on TV this year, which created some interest, so hopefully hosting these international games will spark more interest and get people along to watch."
An added attraction for local fans will come in the form of Northland's own Black Sticks. "Stacey Michelsen, Anna Thorpe, Ella Gunson and Samantha and Charlotte Harrison are all from Northland, so it will be great for them to play in their own back yard and have some local support," he said.
It is anticipated the games will be intense and of high quality, with the Korean women ranked eighth in the world, just one place behind the Kiwi women.
"They played each other at the Champions Trophy and World Cup and had some pretty close matches with nothing in it. If Korea play with their usual high intensity, there should be some good matches."
If temperatures are to soar, the game will play out in favour of the Koreans, McLeod speculated.
Meanwhile, Belgium could cause a few problems for the New Zealand men.
"Belgium are ranked 13th in the world and occasionally New Zealand might clean them up but there have been a few very close games in the past. The New Zealand men have a chance of making the top six but don't always put teams away that they should be beating. "The Black Sticks need to get up to competing - and beating - the top four ranked teams in the world and while you could ask for those teams like Aussie or the Netherlands to come here and play, the teams we have got coming this summer are pretty reasonable," he said.
Game schedule for Rosvall ITM Hockey Centre, Whangarei: February 8: Black Sticks women vs Korea, 5.30pm; Black Sticks men vs Belgium, 7.30pm.
February 10: Black Sticks women vs Korea, 5.30pm; Black Sticks men vs Belgium, 7.30pm.