Hockey: World champions too classy for New Zealand

Australia showed why they are rated the best women's hockey team in the world as they beat New Zealand 3-1 at the National Hockey Stadium in Wellington last night.

Several of the gold medal-winning team from Sydney last year may have retired, but the Olympic and world champions continued to show an impressive depth of talent.

While crowd figures were not available, NZ Hockey Federation chief executive Ramesh Patel said it was the country's biggest turnout for an international.

Australia's pace, along with the pressure they applied to the ball carrier, made it difficult for the Black Sticks to go on the offensive. It was 11 minutes before they could mount an attack on goal.

Being pegged back so much over the first 20 minutes began to tell on the New Zealand defence and it was no surprise when Australia took the lead after 24 minutes through Julie Towers, who found herself unmarked at the top of the circle.

Seven minutes later Australia added another when Joanne Banning forced the ball over the goal line from close in. From that point it was always going to be hard for New Zealand to get anything from the game.

When Louise Dobson made it 3-0 four minutes into the second half from a penalty corner, it looked like the floodgates would open, swamping the Black Sticks, but to their credit they regrouped.

Not only did they keep the classy Australians scoreless for the last 31 minutes, but they gave the crowd something to shout about by scoring a consolation goal late in the second half.

From New Zealand's only penalty corner, Anna Lawrence shot and Carol Ward nipped in front of the keeper to turn the ball into the goal.

In contrast, Australia forced several penalty corners but could only convert one, leaving coach David Bell saying this was an area needing speedy improvement.

Despite the scoreline, it was not all doom and gloom for New Zealand. Their inexperienced backline coped reasonably well, apart from a couple of lapses that led to goals, and goalkeeper Helen Clarke was again outstanding.

Caryn Paewai had an excellent game, both defensively and when going forward, while in the second half Meredith Orr and Paula Enoka began to impose themselves.

Black Sticks coach Jan Borren lamented the lapses that led to goals.

"We built our strategy to cope with high forwards, then got caught," she said.

"Against Australia, you need to absorb the pressure and catch them on the break. You have to stay composed and not lose concentration, which we did when we left her [Towers] totally free.

"We knew it would be a good test and we held it together pretty well. It was also nice to score from our only penalty corner."

There was no joy for Australian captain Katrina Powell, who started and finished the game on 99 international goals. She hit the post twice and had another good shot well saved by Clarke.

The second test is at Rosedale Park, Albany, tomorrow.

- NZPA