Hockey: Towns remains wary of the Scottish play

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Simon Towns knows the Great Britain men's team well, thanks to playing against them week-in, week-out for the past three English seasons.

"The only guys I haven't played against are the three Scots they have here," Towns, the New Zealand captain, said yesterday.

"One of those, centre-half and captain Graham Moodie, is playing against me in central midfield. That's a bit of a challenge."

But he is more concerned about his own team than the opposition. Towns admitted that the New Zealanders, coached by his father, Kevin, are holding something back in the five-test series.

"We are not going to give our full game-plan, just as I'm sure they are keeping something back," Towns said.

"There is every chance we will meet at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Madrid in March."

Before that, they must finish the series. The home side take a 2-1 lead into this afternoon's fourth test in Mt Maunganui. The last match will be played in Hamilton tomorrow afternoon.

Towns was encouraged by the 1700-strong crowd at Thursday night's international, in which New Zealand, with goals from Umesh Parag, Hayden Shaw, Phil Burrows and David Kosoof, came back from 0-1 to win 4-2.

"That was a bigger crowd than we had in Auckland last weekend, and today's crowd could be even bigger," he said.

Towns admitted Burrows' return had been a tremendous fillip - he missed the first two tests.

"The first half of the second test last Sunday was just terrible. It was a good wake-up call.

"Again, on Thursday night, the first 10 or 15 minutes weren't very good. Then there was a big step up," Towns said.

"Having Phil back helped massively. He is one of our best players. Being without him and another key striker in Bevan Hari has made it difficult.

"There is still more work to be done. We have to cut down the turnovers and continue to work hard on other things we have been trying.

"For us, this is the start of a three-month campaign aimed at the Olympic qualifiers. Great Britain have had a couple of two-week camps and time in Hong Kong, so they are a little ahead of us in that respect."

A few changes in the New Zealand team are inevitable for today's game, with first-choice goalkeeper Paul Woolford likely to make his only appearance of the series.

Both matches start at 3pm.