Sticks face big battle to make final of tri-series

3 0 New Zealand’s first tournament since winning gold at the Commonwealth Games hasn’t exactly gone to plan.

Last night’s 3-0 loss to Australia in Cromwell leaves them in a battle to be sure of making the women’s trinations hockey final on Sunday.

World No 5 Australia play Japan tonight before the second and thirdplaced teams in the series square off on Saturday for the right to play the Aussies in the final.

New Zealand lost 4-1 to Australia in their first clash, went down 2-1 to the 12th-ranked Japanese before beating them 4-1 on Tuesday.

The world No 4 Black Sticks are without some senior players, including captain Stacey Michelsen, senior defenders Sam Charlton (recovering from knee surgery) and Liz Thompson (back injury), for this series but there’s no excuses, said Black Sticks assistant coach Sean Dancer.

“They are expected to perform. We had some really good patches of play, it didn’t feel like a 3-0 game but the consistency of our performance isn’t quite there at the moment.”

Australia went ahead in the first quarter through a Savannah Fitzpatrick field goal and doubled the lead in the 40th minute with a goal by Ambrosia Malone.

Stephanie Kershaw added the third goal shortly before the finish.

Australia, who lost the Games final 4-1 to the Black Sticks, had impressed Dancer but the message is beat Japan on Saturday and it will be a transtasman final.

‘’We had enough opportunities to win the game, but when you’re not quite on your game in that attacking area you certainly make things tough for yourself,” he said.