Rampant Germany hammer Black Sticks

The Black Sticks men have been dealt a harsh lesson at the Six Nations tournament in Spain after suffering a 6-1 thumping to Germany.

The Kiwis struggled against the world No 3 side from the outset before Kane Russell grabbed a consolation goal one minute from time with a penalty corner drag flick.

The Germans excelled from setpiece, scoring four goals from penalty Germany 6 (Mortiz Furste 3, Jonas Gromoll, Tom Grambusch, Christopher Ruhr) NZ 1 (Kane Russell). HT: 4-0. corners as Mortiz Furste led the way with a hat-trick. ‘‘It’s a pretty disappointing performance from us. Our first quarter was OK but then Germany hit their strides and we couldn’t stem the flow,’’ coach Colin Batch said.

‘‘We needed to put more pressure on Germany but once they raced out to a four-goal lead at halftime it was very hard work from there.’’

Germany opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Furste sent a penalty corner flick past Devon Manchester in goal for New Zealand.

He doubled the lead with a replay of the first goal five minutes later before the Germans were awarded a penalty stroke for a judged push in the circle, Jonas Gomoll converting to open a three goal lead. Furste scored his hattrick midway through the second quarter from his third successful penalty corner of the match.

The one-way traffic continued after halftime as the Germans raced out to a 6-0 lead until the Black Sticks salvaged some pride through Russell’s late strike.

Batch will be looking for a big response when they play India tomorrow (4am NZ time), before games against Ireland on Saturday and Argentina on Monday.