Hockey: Defence certain to be stretched

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Jan Borren was not surprised that his New Zealand women's hockey team spent so much of the first test against Australia on defence.

"You tend to defend a lot against Australia," Borren said yesterday. "The way they played, even with their newcomers, was much what we expected. We knew they would be looking to put our defence under attack."

In holding the world and Olympic champions to just two goals in going down 1-3 in Wellington on Thursday night, was a fair reflection of the match, but perhaps more disappointing for the visitors.

They had 24 scoring chances to five and led the penalty corner count 8-1, with both teams scoring once from them.

Borren had a brief look at the video of the match before taking his charges to Albany's Rosedale Park, the venue of today's second test, for a practice yesterday afternoon.

"There are things we need to work on," Borren said. "A lot of our players had not played Australia before.

"Having said that, and seeing what happened in Wellington, we also know there is never any quick fix against Australia.

"We have to look to tidy up at the back and at a way to get the ball out of defence quicker. There were also problems in transferring the ball from one side to the other.

"Sure, we were disappointed to lose, but not too much," Borren said. "It is now the time for the players to stand up and be counted."

The Australians are a slick, no-nonsense outfit who enjoy winning - and know how to do it.

But with the wealth of possession and set-play opportunities, there remains the feeling they will want better today and in tomorrow's final showdown in Hamilton.

Alyson Annan, a 200-plus test veteran, showed her class, but her team-mates were not far behind.

New coach David Bell was keen to give his players game time and he used the bench well to ensure there were fresh legs to maintain match-winning pressure.

Borren gave his players a light session yesterday, with the emphasis on defence and on attacking and defensive set plays.

He will have to confirm his squad for next month's Champions Trophy after this series.

While Borren is reasonably confident Mandy Smith will be ready to return and bolster the attack, he still has concerns over defender Sandy Bennett and her hamstring injury.

In a curtainraiser to today's test, North Harbour and Canterbury will meet in a replay of this month's national under-15 girls final, won 1-0 by the southerners.