The New Zealand women’s hockey team kept the defence of their Commonwealth Games crown on track with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Scotland.
The result gives them two wins from two outings – they overwhelmed Kenya 16-0 in the opening round.
Next up for New Zealand will be a testing Tuesday morning clash with traditional rivals Australia.
The Scots proved gritty and stubborn. New Zealand earned nine penalty corners, but were able to convert only one – when Rose Tynan scored in the 10th minute.
Though possession was evenly shared, New Zealand looked the far more dangerous and penetrative side, but could not breach the Scottish defence. New Zealand had 21 shots at goal, Scotland just five.
New Zealand captain Megan Hull gave full credit to Scotland afterwards.
“They were passionate and energetic and they brought it all to the table,” she said. “We had to be on our game. We probably need to be more clinical in both circles.”
In the end, she said, the New Zealanders were just pleased to come away with victory. “Sometimes you have to just grind out the wins. We did that. Now we’ll recover and turn our focus to Australia.”