Hockey: Winning start for Black Sticks

Making the most of their better preparation and acclimatisation, the Black Sticks battled strongly in fighting back from 2-0 down at halftime to beat Argentina 3-2 in yesterday's opening match at the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

While not entirely happy with the performance - especially at the time they took to settle - New Zealand coach Kevin Towns was well-satisfied with the result and many aspects of his team's play.

"I thought we did well up front as the players continue to adjust to the needs of the new strategy [assistant coach] Shane McLeod has come up with," said Towns. "Those changes have created some defensive issues which we will need to work on."

The Black Sticks were stung early as the Argentineans hit the turf running.

They went ahead after eight minutes with a successful drag flick at a penalty corner and repeated that 12 minutes later for a 2-0 halftime lead. Argentina had two other drag flicks - one, a variation, missed the target, the other was saved by New Zealand goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex who was called into the team to replace Paul Woolford on Saturday night.

Woolford was suffering a slight knee injury but was rested as a precaution. He will play in tomorrow's game against Pakistan.

The second half was a vastly different story with New Zealand taking greater control as their opponents paid the price for the hectic early pace.

"You can't come out firing like they did and expect to last in this heat," said Towns. "Even at 9am the conditions are quite draining. Coupled with that was their late arrival - they didn't get here until 36 hours before the match - and the rigours of a 27-hour journey."

With the conditions dictating the pace of the game, Towns went to his bench within eight minutes of the start for the first change in keeping with his revolving policy up front with substitutions made every two minutes.

He had a similar ploy in midfield after 15 minutes with Ben Collier, Ryan Archibald, Blair Hopping and Mitesh Patel being rotated at inside forward and centre half.

Three minutes into the second spell New Zealand scored when Hayden Shaw found the target with a drag flick from a penalty corner.

The Black Sticks equalised after 50 minutes with the best-worked goal of the match when Simon Child and Bevan Hari combined well before finding Gareth Brooks on the post from where he provided the finish.

Ten minutes from time, substitute Richard Petherick, on for Shaw, was successful with another drag flick at a penalty corner.

Towns was happy with the winning start but knows it will not get any easier. Argentina, ranked eighth, are one place higher on the international list than New Zealand. Pakistan are ranked fifth.

"We had to work for the win for sure," said Towns. "We were able to capitalise as the Argentineans tired but that won't be the case in the rest of the games." New Zealand's last pool match is Thursday against the Dutch.