Hockey: Black Sticks shooting for return to top six

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Look for a more attacking New Zealand women's team under new coach Ian Rutledge.

The 30-year-old Australian, who took over as Black Sticks' coach following Jan Borren's decision to quit after last November's World Cup, has had his first close look at the players who will form the basis of the team to face Canada in a four-test series next month.

The 29 trialists, named by Rutledge in consultation with co-selectors Chris Leslie and Jude Rawcliffe, had the first of four days of trials/matches at Rosedale Park yesterday.

Within a week, Rutledge will name 18 players for the Canadian tests, a series which will be a crucial lead-in to the Oceania Cup/Olympic qualifiers with Australia later in May.

"I have no preconceived ideas on who should or should not play," said Rutledge. "That is great for me and the players."

He has split the players into two groups for training and four inter-squad matches.

Each group will spend 1 1/2 hours on the turf each day before playing a game.

Although he did not play internationally, Rutledge represented New South Wales from 1991-94 and continued to play premier hockey in Sydney before moving to Canberra.

He lectured in sports coaching/science at the Canberra Institute of Technology for three years before spending three years with Hockey Australia as their national training centre coach.

Rutledge sees the move to New Zealand - with the security of a four-year contract which will take him through to the next Commonwealth Games and the 2006 World Cup - as a step forward and the chance to take a head coaching position for the first time.

He will soon be joined by his wife Donnette and 13-month-old daughter Imogen.

"It was a job which just came along," he said.

"I had been involved with the Australian men's programme under [national coach] Barry Dancer and saw this as an opportunity to take a team on my own.

"And coach one of the top teams in women's hockey."

Rutledge has watched the New Zealand women play since the Sydney Olympics and likes what he has seen.

The challenge now is to get them back into the top six after they dropped to 11th at last year's World Cup in Perth.

"I accept some experienced players have retired. But as a new coach, the players might be willing to accept new ideas.

"Structurally, things will not change too much. I have noticed, however, a reluctance to push out to win.

"While I'm not advocating attack at all costs, I want them to defend stoutly and then be aggressive on attack.

"They have not been scoring a lot of goals. That is something I will look closely at."

Although the team had been penetrating the circle well the scoring percentage was not high.

There was a need for more composure in the circle - on attack and defence.

"Since the change in the offside law some teams have exploited opposing defences well.

"From what I have seen, the New Zealanders have been reluctant, or lacked the confidence, to get in behind defences.

"We will explore different ways of attacking and not stereotype the way we play."

New Zealand Hockey Federation chief executive Ramesh Patel said that although the organisation has had a preference for local coaches, Rutledge had shown out as the best of the candidates.

"He is the first coach we have appointed to a fulltime role," said Patel. "Other coaches have had that opportunity but preferred to work on a part-time basis.

"Ian Rutledge will work closely with men's coach Kevin Towns and will travel around the country in a talent-spotting role as well as talking to men's and women's coaches. He will also be involved with our high-performance programme."

After four days of intensive work - and nine of the trialists are newcomers at this level - Rutledge and the players will have a better idea of where they are headed.