There was little riding on day eight of the tournament for the New Zealand team after losing the China yesterday we were unable to progress above the battle for 5th and 6th tomorrow.
Dj S2, Spencer ‘Special’ Te Pou earned Koru for the day for his weeklong effort at inspiring the team through his music and helping lead the daily Tutira Mai rendition on the team bus to the stadium.
The game against Australia was about putting some plans into place for the playoff on Saturday and also seeing who would earn their spot in the starting line up for the final day. The starting attack was Simon Cooper, Neville Brooker, Helen Abernethy and Natasha Van Vuuren. Starting in defence were Carl Chung, Spencer Te Pou, Alex Clark (C) and Lucy Bolton.
In the first play of the game Simon Cooper continued his fine form converting a 7m shot to give NZ an early lead. However, basic errors, poor ball retention and a lack of structure on attack quickly hurt the kiwis with Australia scoring 12 goals to NZ’s two through the mid stages of the first half. Late in the half two further goals each to Te Pou and Cooper closed the gap to leave NZ trailing 14-8 at the half.
Five changes were made by the teams during the break to give players a chance to stake a claim for the all-important game tomorrow.
Australia continued to show their dominance over a kiwi side that struggled today. A 10-1 run for the Skippies sealed the game through the start of the second half as the eventually closed out the game 29-12. Spencer Te Pou had his most complete performance of the tournament thus far, scoring five, being more active around the court and most likely earning him a starting spot tomorrow.
On the menu for tomorrows battle is the size of China who will be desperate to repeat their comprehensive victory over the kiwi side from earlier in the tournament.
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