Hockey: Time to knuckle down, says Rutledge

Coach Ian Rutledge, naturally delighted with yesterday's win over Australia, said the New Zealand women's hockey team will have to do it again in Sydney this week or the victory will mean little.

The Black Sticks surprised about 2000 fans and the Australian team at Lloyd Elsmore Park with a 1-0 win in the opening match of Oceania series.

Winners of the three-match series, the next two to be played in Sydney on Thursday and Saturday, qualify for next year's World Cup and the losers will have to undergo further qualifying rounds.

"We will celebrate our victory, but we also have to knuckle down," Rutledge said

"Australia will be hurting right now, but they will re-focus."

Hockeyroos coach Frank Murray said he had seen the talent in the New Zealand team when the Black Sticks won this year's Champions Challenge in the United States

"They're a bloody good team. I thought New Zealand played as well as I thought they would play," he said.

Murray said his team could not afford to miss any opportunities to score this week as they did yesterday.

The New Zealanders dominated the attack and managed to stave off Australian pressure to maintain their one-goal lead scored by Canterbury midfielder Meredith Orr in the 41st minute.

Orr deflected Lizzy Igasan's drive from a penalty corner to score behind an Australian defender.

She said the win-- the first in five years against the Hockeyroos -- was the result of three years of hard work under coach Rutledge.

"This is an awesome result. We've been building towards this.

"We knew that we could exploit the (Australians) in certain areas of their game -- here's to next Thursday and hopefully we can keep it up," Orr said.

Both teams had two penalty corners each and Murray said the Hockeyroos knew what to expect when Orr scored from the second corner.

"We didn't execute and they did."

Black Sticks captain Suzie Muirhead said she knew her team were capable of winning.

"We had our fair share of possession and attack. They came back a bit after we scored our goal but I was really pleased with the back-tackling of the forwards, they made (Australia) hesitate and put pressure on them."

It was a debut for the youngest Black Sticks player, 16-year-old Charlotte Harrison, who narrowly missed a volley at goal.

Rutledge said he was very pleased with her performance.

"Charlotte made her first debut a win against Australia -- she did extremely well."

- NZPA