Hockey: Today’s test equal to a ‘final’ for Sticks

The Black Sticks hope a win in their World Cup qualifying decider against Australia in Sydney today will point the way towards Commonwealth Games glory next year.

After their 1-0 win in the opening match of the three-game Oceania series in Auckland, New Zealand were drubbed 4-0 by the Hockeyroos in Sydney on Thursday night.

It was a severe beating in statistical terms on the park. Australia got nine penalty corners, New Zealand none. For those who needed it, the result and the run of the game were an old-fashioned rude awakening.

Yesterday gave the Black Sticks a chance to regroup for this afternoon's match, which will sort out who advances directly to next year's World Cup in Madrid in September and who heads for the final qualifying tournament in Italy shortly after the March Commonwealth Games.

Apart from wanting to beat Australia today for all the obvious reasons, captain Suzie Muirhead pointed to a longer term goal as well.

"Effectively it's a final and if we want to win the gold at the Commonwealth Games, we've got to win finals," she said from Sydney.

She conceded Australia were all over the Black Sticks from the start on Thursday night, and even though the four goals did not come until a rush in the final 25 minutes, Muirhead admitted her team were well off the pace.

"We were lucky to be 0-0 at halftime and we knew we weren't playing well.

"But if we could have stepped up a couple of notches," Muirhead said, "we could have got into it."

They couldn't and although Australian coach Frank Murray magnanimously suggested a 4-0 scoreline may have flattered his team, the game left his New Zealand counterpart, Ian Rutledge, unimpressed.

"It was a disappointing turnaround," he said. "They rode all the highs on Sunday [at the first game, in Auckland]. There was a euphoric feeling in the team, and now they're desperately disappointed."

Rutledge used the same 16 players in the second game as the first, leaving Clarissa Eshuis and goalkeeper Beth Jurgeleit out of his squad of 18.

Yesterday's training session combined technical work with taking steps to ensure the Black Sticks were mentally ready for today's contest.

The match begins at 4pm.