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Black Sticks captain Dean Couzins in action. - Source: Photosport -
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The Black Sticks Men have gone down 4-1 against Australia in the third and final Test in Cairns on Monday night.
Coach Shane McLeod said his side has improved with each game played in this series, but there is still a lot of work to do over the next month as they build to the London Olympics.
"Australia is a team that test your game and are an extremely challenging side to play against, that's why we are here. If you go off your game for just a few minutes they will punish you and score goals," says McLeod.
"I thought both sides were relatively even and competitive in the first spell. But in the second half, we lapsed concentration and ended up on the back foot, there was a lot of turnover from both sides, but we were the worst offenders."
The Black Sticks looked promising on attack and held tight on defence throughout the first half, keeping Australia scoreless until right on half time when Kieran Govers scored his third goal of the series in the 35th minute.
But the Black Sticks were unable to contain the world champions in the second half.
Within ten minutes, Australian's Des Abbott, Glenn Turner and Russell Ford had all scored field goals making it 4-0.
Nick Wilson scored his second goal of the series in the 68th minute when the ball was stolen high in the field and Hugo Inglis skillfully eliminated the opposition, passing to Wilson who tapped it in.
In the last few minutes of the game the Kiwis created opportunities to score, but it was a case of too little, too late.
Black Sticks goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex played his 150th Test match tonight after debuting in 2001 against Malaysia.
The teams have been practicing penalty shoot outs at the end of each Test match as part of their build up to the Olympics. Australia won the first one, the second was drawn and the Black Sticks won tonight's one 4-0.
Australia 4 (K Govers, D Abbott, G Turner, R Ford)
New Zealand 1 (N Wilson)
HT: 1-0