Hockey: Japan hand NZ Olympic wake-up call

8.00am - By CHRIS BARCLAY

SYDNEY - Japan handed New Zealand's women hockey team a pre-Olympic reality check by beating the Black Sticks 2-1 in Queensland last night.

The nations are lumped in the same group in Athens and the Japanese clash in Greece is a must-win if New Zealand hopes to progress to the medal round.

Captain Suzie Muirhead opened the scoring via a penalty corner in the 26th minute at the Townsville Hockey Centre but Japan prevailed through second half strikes to Naoko Saito and Sakae Morimoto.

The loss gave New Zealand a three-win, three-loss record in the tournament which also involves Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

New Zealand's fortunes have dipped since the competition switched from Darwin to north Queensland after the Blacks Sticks narrowly squeezed past the AIS 1-0 last night.

New Zealand had beaten Japan three games to one in a home test series in February and won 3-1 in Darwin last week.

Veteran goalkeeper Helen Clarke, who logged her 160th cap last night, admitted the loss was a wake-up call for the New Zealanders.

"It's a target game for us at the Olympics. We're going to have to beat them," she said.

"(Last night) was probably good timing. It will be in our memories and it'll hurt in Athens. We won't be treating them lightly in Athens -- it will give us an incentive."

Clarke considered the game evenly poised despite the Japanese skipping clear after the interval.

"Like Darwin, it was a pretty evenly. In the second half we had some (penalty) corners but couldn't put them away.

"It was disappointing to be 1-0 up and lose the game but we're still learning and we don't want to show too much before we play them in Athens.

"It's frustrating to lose the game but they're still just learning games for us."

Coach Ian Rutledge continued with his rotation policy giving all of the 16-strong squad game time.

New Zealand next face Olympic champions Australia on Saturday (1700NZT).

The Hockeyroos have already beaten New Zealand 6-3 and 4-0 in Darwin to underline their trans-Tasman superiority.

Clarke said the New Zealanders craved to beat Australia but they remain "one of the teams in international hockey we really struggle against.

"If we can chip away and get closer that's great.

"We're working on our defensive structure so they really have to hunt to get a goal. If we can for the next game it's another step closer to a win."

- NZPA