The Hockeyroos versus Black Sticks match tonight was always going to be about who was going to make fewer unforced errors and who was going to be stronger on the ball as all the sides rebuild after a swag of retirements following the Rio Olympics.
Unfortunately for Hager, the visitors showed ascendancy from the opening whistle and, consequently, drew first blood in the battle between two scratchy outfits on day one.
Striker Laura Barden rattled the backboard to make it 1-0, after a teammate's shot had ricocheted off the right upright to roll back in an oblique angle into the D following a dangerous intercept.
Barden didn't need a second invite to leave a fly in Rutherford's otherwise very potent ointment.
"I said to people it felt a little like a lost draw, especially when you're up 1-nil for the majority of the game and, I think, we had applied heaps of pressure from the beginning," said the 22-year-old striker/midfielder from Melbourne with just 22 international caps under her sleeves and didn't go to Rio.
"That we lost it with just two minutes to go is really disappointing," she said with a smile and a sip on her water bottle.
Barden felt, in hindsight, the Hockeyroos should have brought down the tempo of the game to their level in the last quarter.
It could have been a different story had Rachel McCann sshown composure to trap the ball in the opening minute from a well-timed pass across the face of the goalmouth, putting her at point-blank range with just goalkeeper Ashlee Wells to beat.
Natasha Fitzsimons took a breather on the green card in the 32nd minute but, it seemed, that fuelled the Black Sticks to snap out of a bit of sluggishness that had crept in.
It took the last quarter for the Stacey Michelsen-skippered New Zealanders to find ascendancy with the Aussies down to 10 players after Emily Smith picked up a green card in the 54th minute.
The goal came from a surging run from experienced Christchurch striker Olivia Merry into the D but returning veteran Samantha Harrison pounced on the deflected ball with a sliding stick.
That prompted the parochial fans into chants of: "Let's go, Black Sticks."
The younger sister of former Black Stick Charlotte Harrison, the 25-year-old Northland-born striker is making a comeback to the national team fold after a layoff dating back to the London Olympics in 2012.
"It's definitely good to score but it would have been nicer if there were a couple more so we could get the win but it is what it is so it it's good to get a draw and not a loss," said a smiling Harrison who has more than 100 caps for her country.
With the rebuild, she said there was always something to improve, via watching videotapes to improve at tourneys like the one in Hastings.
Harrison's nous was evident in the goal, showing anticipation on the parried Merry attempt after she had come off the bench earlier.
The jovial player said it was a case of 50-50 muscle memory and regaining mental fortitude on returning from her hiatus.
"It's quite hard so I had to put in a lot of work in summer on fitness targets that we needed to actually even make the tour," she said.