Hockey: Borren grumpy at Games draw

New Zealand women's coach Jan Borren is not happy the Black Sticks will play host country England first up at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester next year.

Ranked second in the Commonwealth behind world and Olympic champions Australia, who are in the opposite pool, New Zealand are top seeds in their group, with England second, India third and Canada fourth.

Borren said it was ridiculous that the two top seeds would meet in the first game of the tournament.

"The way it is set up, being top seed is no advantage," Borren said. "The top seed would normally play the fourth seed and get to play their way into the tournament before meeting the second-ranked team in the last pool game.

"It was the same situation at the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur and they should have learnt a lesson from there."

Borren said that the winners of the opening game were likely to win the pool, and that would determine who played Australia in the semifinals.

"You could finish up with a situation whereby it would be advantageous [under the new elimination final system] for the loser of New Zealand against England to lose another game to avoid Australia in the semis."

In the other pool, Australia will play second seeds Scotland first up.

- NZPA