Hockey: Black Sticks eye bigger fish after Melbourne upset

New Zealand women's hockey coach Ian Rutledge is more convinced than ever his team can win a medal at the next World Cup and Olympics despite some late stage fright in Melbourne.

Tear ducts got a solid workout for a second time in three days as the Black Sticks, tournament second favourites on world rankings, finished fourth for a second successive Games after losing a dramatic penalty shootout 3-1 to England.

New Zealand booked a bronze medal match after losing their semifinal 1-0 to India.

Rutledge wasn't wavering from his loyal backing of a young team, saying they were unlucky not to be on the dais alongside Australia who won the final 1-0 over India.

"Take out that one goal against India and a few little errors in that match and we're in the final and guaranteed a medal," Rutledge said.

"We can beat ourselves up over little things but all in all the overall performance was very good for us. I'm very proud of the girls. Their performance was more than satisfactory."

After an uninspiring 70 minutes then 15 minutes of extra time yesterday, a scoreless match went to penalty strokes and England handled the heat better.

Michelle Hollands nailed New Zealand's first attempt but Frances Kreft missed and Stacey Carr and Kayla Sharland had theirs saved when both opted to hit to England goalkeeper Carolyn Reid's right.

"We practise them, but you can't practise pressure. That's the difference," Rutledge said.

Ability to handle pressure was the big question heading into World Cup qualifiers in Rome next month.

Having cruised through pool play, scoring 20 goals and conceding one, they couldn't snare an early goal to clam the nerves against India or England, who they hammered 4-0 on Tuesday.

New Zealand's defence from Lizzy Igasan and Di Weavers was again outstanding but the penalty corners were poor at the other end, despite several chances set up by success story Charlotte Harrison.

Rutledge noted New Zealand were the youngest team at the tournament, with an average age of 22 after the surprise axing of experienced pair Niniwa Roberts-Lang and Jaimee Provan.

"All our strikers, the three young girls, they played their first tournament. One [Krystal Forgesson] got five goals and the other [Harrison] got four. Our strikers have played well at this tournament and scored goals.

"They're going to grow from that experience and move forward very quickly over the next 12 months. We're very much on target to do well at the World Cup [in Madrid in September] and on target to Beijing [Olympics in 2008]."

Like his men's team counterpart Kevin Towns, Rutledge admitted they had bigger fish to fry in the next two years.

"Without any disrespect to the Commonwealth Games, World Cup and Olympics are the two big tournaments for us. But we came to this tournament to win it. We've learned lessons and we can be better."

It was a memorable 100th international for Hollands for all the wrong reasons.

Having returned after giving birth to her first child, Hollands said the pain of defeat would linger for a while. She was one of the most upset after the loss to India.

"I think everyone's pretty damn disappointed. It's a devastating feeling to come away and try to win a gold medal and to have that opportunity taken away, then to lose the bronze is disappointing."

- NZPA