The Black Sticks certainly suffered a bloody nose before eventually putting away a gritty New Zealand A 4-1 at the Summer of Hockey at the McMillan Centre last night.
In what was a true possibles v probables clash in a World Cup year, New Zealand A came out hungry, looking to not only impress as a team, but also individually in front of Black Sticks coach Phil Burrows.
Many felt it would be one-way traffic, and it was early — but for the possibles.
New Zealand A skipper Anna Willocks stunned the Dunedin crowd when opening the scoring after just six minutes.
Willocks’ energy from the moment she scored was palpable, and it really inspired her side to challenge hard. They certainly had the Black Sticks riled up.
New Zealand A were good value to be leading at the quarter break and, with some luck, they could easily have been two ahead, but Grace O’Hanlon made a couple of good saves to keep her side’s deficit to one.
It was then perhaps the fitness of the Black Sticks who have been in camp for over a week now, which shone through.
Hannah Cotter struck a scrappy goal straight after halftime, and once the momentum was with the white-clad Black Sticks, there was no turning back.
Olivia Shannon found the go-ahead goal with three minutes to play in the third quarter and, though New Zealand A continued to scrap, they were running out of steam.
Mezzy Surridge capped off a strong individual showing with the third midway through the final quarter, before Riana Pho put the icing on the cake just before fulltime.
While ultimately the expected result, the manner of performance will be of concern to Burrows.
It was expected New Zealand A would come out firing, but the Black Sticks’ lack of response was notable, and they were certainly the less hungry of the two sides on offer.
Kaea Elliott was the pick of the bunch for New Zealand A, proving a real calming influence among the chaos.
The experienced Liz Thompson excelled for the same reasons for the Black Sticks.
A stellar effort from the possibles, but in the end the probables showed, why they are in fact the probables.
In the early game, the United States booked their spot in Sunday’s final with a thumping 4-0 win over Japan.
The Americans were lethal from penalty corners, and showed why they are the favourites to win the the tournament.
