Hockey: Washout fails to dampen ambition

The deluge which washed out the second test against Malaysia in Hamilton on Thursday night came at the wrong time for the New Zealanders.

After a messy first half, New Zealand were playing better in the second, getting back from 0-1 after 21 minutes to be level after 47 - two minutes before play was abandoned.

"We could have waited around but there was no guarantee we would have got back on," said New Zealand coach Kevin Towns yesterday. "The water had got under the carpet and there was nowhere for it to drain away.

"In the time we did play, our young players were a bit impatient which made things a bit messy but that is all part of the learning curve."

The visitors took the lead through captain and penalty corner expert Kuhan Shanmuganathan, who slid home one of the two penalty corners awarded Malaysia. New Zealand's reply came when Dave Kosoof converted the third of the three corners they were awarded.

Six of the 10 new players, Richard Petherick, Hugh Copland, Shaun Barnett, Sanjay Patel, Jason Bradley and Hamish Baron started the match, with Petherick making his debut.

Bryce Collins, who missed the first game with a groin injury, played 20 minutes off the bench. He will be rested for today's third test but will start in tomorrow's fourth. Both games will to be played at Lloyd Elsmore Park.

Towns said he would be "looking for more of the same" in the remaining tests. The players spent just over an hour on the match turf training yesterday with the emphasis on patience and better leading from the front-runners.

"We want to have a real go in the remaining tests," said Towns. "To do that we have to be more aggressive which is something the younger players need to work on."

Auckland striker Simon Child, 16, and North Harbour's Ben Collier, 20, will make their debuts this afternoon. They will be joined at some stage by Wellington defender Tim Gyles, 20, as the last of the 10 newcomers to see some action.

The young Auckland duo of Cain Fleming and Hamish Baron, who had encouraging debuts in Tuesday's first test, will start this afternoon joining Collier and Child in a youthful attack along side Kosoof who provides the much-needed experience in a New Zealand team ranked a couple of places higher than their opponents but way behind in experience and recent match play.

Lloyd Elsmore Park, 3pm today

NEW ZEALAND
* Paul Woolford, Dion Gosling, Brad Shaw, Wayne McIndoe, Shaun Barnett, Dharmesh Puna, Cain Fleming, Ben Collier, Simon Child, Hamish Baron, Dave Kosoof.

* Substitutes: Kyle Pontifex, Blair Hopping, Tim Gyles, Darren Smith, Lloyd Stephenson.