The Black Sticks men have been thrashed 8-1 by Australia in the opening test of their four match trans-Tasman series at Auckland.
A fresh-faced New Zealand side containing six debutants were no match for Australia, as their preparation for this year's Birmingham Commonwealth Games was given a wake-up call.
After a scoreless first quarter, the NZ men took a surprise lead against the Tokyo Olympics silver medallists, as defender David Brydon opened the scoring for his first international goal, but that lead would last just minutes, as Australia opened the floodgates in a relentless scoring wave.
Two goals from Nathan Ephraums and one to Flynn Ogilvie saw Australia reduce the Black Sticks' 1-0 lead to a 3-1 deficit at the halftime break.
Blake Govers scored after the resumption, turning a penalty corner into the net for his 100th international goal, before another strike - this time to Tom Wickham - made it 5-1 in Australia's favour.
In a third quarter that saw the Black Sticks concede four goals without answer, Ephraums completed his hat-trick, before Govers made it 101 goals for his country.
Up 7-1 in the last quarter, Jacob Anderson completed the rout before fulltime, scoring Australia's eighth and final goal to give the Kookaburras a series lead and momentum heading into the second match of the series on Thursday night.
New Zealand 1 (Brydon) Australia 8 (Ephraums 3, Ogilvie, Govers 2, Wickham, Anderson)
