Hockey: Beat the heat top priority for men

New Zealand men's hockey coach Kevin Towns is more interested in his team's ability to beat the heat than their opposition at the Six Nations tournament starting in Malaysia today.

The New Zealand men will barely be off the plane in Kuala Lumpur before they face Australia tonight in their first outing of a build-up to next month's World Cup, which is also to be hosted by Malaysia from February 24 to March 9.

With a wet summer hardly preparing the team for the dramatic climate change, and lacking an international outing since last July in chilly Edinburgh, Towns is not placing high expectations on the players, who should provide the nucleus of the cup, and later Commonwealth Games, squad.

"We're arriving late, we're playing within 24 hours and we've got the Netherlands the next day. We're going to be rusty," Towns said.

"Winning and losing is obviously not critical but we'll be targeting to play pretty well later on against Malaysia and Japan."

Accepting that the temperature and humidity would be an obstacle, Towns said a vital component of the trip was testing a number of strategies to keep the players hydrated.

"They'll wear ice-filled cooling jackets on the way to the games and at halftime to keep the body temperatures down."

The management want a medical programme settled before they return for the World Cup.

There will be no respite on this trip for the players, with training sessions mandatory on non-playing days, although they will rest between games at the World Cup.

To compensate for the heat, World Cup organisers have allowed a maximum of 18 players to take part in each game, an increase from the usual 16, allowing Towns to plan more strategic substitutions and "try a few different things".

Towns said that with New Zealand playing Australia first at the Commonwealth Games and the Netherlands in their opening match of the World Cup, none of the teams would be showing too much in this tournament.

Experienced defender Dion Gosling was a late defection from the side, dropping out on Saturday after pulling a hamstring during training.

Gosling, with 99 caps, failed a fitness test and management have also decided against playing him at the World Cup.

He has been replaced by Dean Couzins. Fellow defender Hayden Shaw and midfielder Peter Stafford will make their international debuts.

Itinerary: Today v Australia; tomorrow v Netherlands, Monday v Malaysia, Wednesday v Pakistan, Thursday v Japan, Jan 26 final classification matches; final.

- NZPA