Hockey: Black Sticks steel for showdown

The preliminaries out of the way, Black Sticks coach Shane McLeod was last night plotting one of the biggest games of his career - tomorrow's Oceania Cup final against a fired-up Australian men's team in Invercargill.

"Yes, as a challenge it is right up there with the Olympics and the final of the Olympic qualifiers last year," admitted McLeod after his team had cruised into one of the two showpiece matches [finals] at the tournament.

Understandably, he was reading little into yesterday's 19-0 romp over the outclassed Samoans in their last pool match, quickly saying "there are not a lot of similarities between Samoa and Australia".

Ahead 8-0 at halftime, the Black Sticks added 11 in the second half with Nick Wilson (six) and captain Phil Burrows (five) leading the charge.

Hayden Shaw added two with his trademark drag flicks while Wellington striker Joel Baker helped himself to a hat-trick.

"It was pleasing in the way they took their goalscoring chances, especially as the Samoans showed little on attack and were happy to sit back and defend," said McLeod.

"I was happy with the finishing."

The coach was also comforted in getting through the match without any injury concerns.

"We have a full line-up from which to name the team to play Australia. We will go into the final with just one goalkeeper [Kyle Pontifex] but will look at the balance of the side and what we hope to do before naming the other player who will sit it out."

McLeod admits he was a little disappointed with the fall-off in intensity in the second half of Wednesday's 5-2 loss to Australia.

"I was pleased with how we matched up in the first half and took plenty of positives from that," said McLeod. "But we fell away a little in the second which was disappointing."

New Zealand go into tomorrow's must-win game, which carries automatic World Cup qualification, with one decided, and unlikely, advantage.

For the first time in recent memory, New Zealand can put out a team boasting more international caps than their long-time rivals.

"We are determined to make that a plus but in reality, it will come down to doing the right things at the right time. We know it is a game which will be played at pace and we have to be ready," said McLeod.

Of some concern is the bumpy nature of the Invercargill surface.

At times during yesterday's games the Black Sticks were guilty of mis-trapping the ball. "It is not such a great surface and that is something we have to be aware of," he said. "Mis-traps can open up opportunities - both ways."

McLeod, enjoying his first head-to-head confrontation with great Australian coach Ric Charlesworth, is confident his team can "do the business but only if we can get most things right".

Gemma Flynn dominated the women's scoring with five while 10 other players registered goals as the Black Sticks went one better than Australia's 16-0 defeat of Samoa.

The final score would have been higher if not for the good work of Samoan goalkeeper Doreen Pese.

The men's final (at 3.15pm) will follow the women's final (at 12.45pm). Both are live on Cue Television.