Hockey: Silver medal finish for New Zealand Men

The New Zealand Men have come away with a silver medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games after being beaten 2-0 by hosts Australia in the final.

As expected, it was a tight battle between the trans-Tasman rivals with a strong second quarter from Australia allowing them to score twice to take a 2-0 advantage into halftime.

Aaron Kleinschmidt scored from open play in the 21st minute before Matt Dawson converted from a penalty corner two minutes from the end of the quarter.

The Kiwis created their share of chances and came close to scoring on several occasions but were shut out by the world number one ranked hosts.

The silver medal adds to the tally for the New Zealand Men having previously won silver in Manchester 2002 and bronze at Delhi 2010.

Head coach Darren Smith said while it was disappointing not to win gold, the performance throughout the competition was impressive.

"Today I didnt think we were as clinical as we needed to be but Australia were the better team and overall we are quite happy," he said.

"We put together some good hockey over the past few weeks and played very well especially early in the pool stage.

"Weve got a relatively fresh group and lot of them are at their first Commonwealth Games so will take away some valuable experience, and for us its onwards to bigger things."

New Zealand 0

Australia 2: (Aaron Kleinschmidt, Matt Dawson)

Halftime: Australia 2-0

More on hockey at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games - https://www.gc2018.com/sport/hockey

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Hockey NZ