Hockey: Brave Mandy reaches 100 test milestone

By Suzanne McFadden

World hockey star Mandy Smith can tell the spinal surgeons tomorrow night that they were wrong.

Five years ago she was told she would probably never play the game again, let alone 100 tests.

Tomorrow night, 27-year-old Smith will earn her centenary cap for New Zealand, against world and Olympic champions Australia.

Even though back surgery stole a year from her career, the girl who grew up on a farm in Ranfurly, Central Otago, has become one of the world's favourite hockey players.

Smith, voted sports personality at last year's World Cup, will play her milestone match in her old home city of Dunedin.

In another five years, Smith's milestone will be memorable to others only if New Zealand win - it's been 20 years since the Kiwis beat Australia.

It is a tough ask for the New Zealanders, in a bizarre qualification process for next year's Sydney Olympics.

Australia are already there - as Olympic hosts and the undisputed world No 1.

But still New Zealand have to beat them in the three test home-and-away series for the Oceania spot, or face a second-life tournament in England next March.

There won't be any favours for mates here, either. The Australians arrived in Dunedin yesterday with their star line-up.

After a difficult European tour, they have no intention of rolling over for the Kiwis.

"They aren't going to come here and throw it," Smith said. "This is true Aussie-New Zealand rivalry here."

Smith, New Zealand's top striker, has had a roller-coaster career since she was chosen to play her first test as a 17-year-old schoolgirl in 1990.

Things were going swimmingly, Smith playing hockey and studying for degrees in food science and marketing at Otago University, until she began suffering lower back pain.

In 1994 it got to the stage where she had to have a discectomy - where two-thirds of a disc in her lumbar spine were removed.

"I was out for a year, but I had trouble for two," she said. "But I stuck with hockey through the hard times.

"Then I moved to Auckland, and it was really refreshing, and I got into new rehabilitation training."

Smith still gets niggles in her back, but she does an hour of stretches every morning.

She works in marketing for television production company Left Field, which produces Sports Cafe, the show starring her partner, former All Black Marc Ellis.

Smith says tomorrow night is just another game, but the magic 100 mark makes her feel old.

"I feel like I'm joining the oldies club," she laughs.

She joins her team-mates - captain Anna Lawrence (109 caps), Kate Trolove (136) and Robyn Matthews (138) - in the small, exclusive club.

New Zealand will fly to Sydney on Thursday to get ready for the last two tests of the series, played at the Olympic hockey venue at Homebush.

New Zealand: Helen Clarke, Anne-Marie Irving, (goalkeepers); Sandy Bennett, Jenny Duck, Skippy McGregor, Toni Mason, Caryn Paewai, Rachel Petrie (defenders); Anna Lawrence (c), Robyn Matthews, Suzie Pearce, Michelle Turner (midfield); Kylie Foy, Moira Senior, Mandy Smith, Kate Trolove (forwards).

Australia: Rachel Imison, Justine Sowry (goalkeepers); Lisa Carruthers, Louise Dobson, Juliet Haslam, Alison Peek, Karen Smith, Carmel Souter (defenders); Renita Gerrard, Brooke Morrison, Kate Starre, Kristen Towers, Melanie Twitt (midfield); Michelle Andrews, Alyson Annan, Rechelle Hawkes, Katrina Powell, Julie Towers (forwards).