Hockey women go down to Australia

Defending Commonwealth Games women’s hockey champions New Zealand couldn’t hold off Australia in their pool match.

The Australians, ranked No 3 in the world, won 1-0 by virtue of an early penalty stroke.

Much of the game was played in the midfield, but Australia made more of the attacking moves and certainly dominated the match statistics – 12 shots at goal to six, and 11 penalty corners to one.

Australia have yet to concede a goal at the tournament and the penalty stroke against Australia was the only time the New Zealand goal has been breached.

New Zealand co-captain Megan Hull said it was disappointing the team’s effort had slacked in the second half.

“We can look back on the first half and there was some good stuff put out there,” she said. “But we went a bit static on the ball in the second half. It’s something for us to look at.”

She said the team had had trouble getting the ball from the defence downfield. “In the first half we pushed through more, but we have to take the lessons from the second half.”

New Zealand now face a must-win match against South Africa to reach the semi-finals.