Commonwealth Games: Good win for women's Black Sticks

Sarah Robertson of Scotland and Liz Thompson of New Zealand compete for the ball during the Pool B Hockey match. Photo/ Getty

Scoring six goals in the first game of a tournament at any time is a decent way to start.

So the women's Black Sticks will be content at having kicked off their Commonwealth Games campaign with a 6-1 win over Scotland on the Gold Coast.

Indeed the disappointing aspect might be the '1' in that scoreline.

The win also has world No 4 New Zealand at the top of group B, with no other matches in their pool until tomorrow. The players had to cope with heavy rain for part of the match.

There were two goals each for Rose Keddell and Shiloh Gloyn, with the others coming from fast-rising attacker Kelsey Smith and defender Brooke Neal.

Scotland's goal came in the final quarter, a well-worked deflection from a penalty corner, by Alison Howie.

The Scots, world ranked 19, weren't expected to seriously threaten the Black Sticks, and so it proved. But as an opening workout it will have helped get some kinks out of the New Zealand game.

The had 21 attempts on goal, and scored from three of five penalty corners. Scotland scored from one of seven attempts.

"It's good to come away with a win and score a few goals," Black Sticks coach Mark Hager said.

"I thought in the first half we were really good and clinical. When the rain came we slowed down and credit to Scotland they put a bit more pressure on us."

Hager felt New Zealand suffered through not moving the ball as quickly as they had in the first half.

"We got tired and made some poor decisions."

Next up for New Zealand is world No 30 Ghana tomorrow and Hager reckons they'll be better than that ranking might suggest.

"We've been watching a bit of footage of Ghana. They're quite good and they can play hockey so we'll have to be on our game."

New Zealand are seeded to make the final, with England world No 2. Hosts Australia are ranked No 5 and will expect to have a say in the tournament at the sharp end.

The men's Black Sticks also kick off their campaign tomorrow with a game against Canada.

That's expected to be a stiff challenge. New Zealand are ranked No 9 in the world, two spots ahead of the Canadians.