In the lengthy history of trans-tasman football, New Zealand teams generally tend to find the going tough against their Australian counterparts, particularly on West Island soil. Every once in a while, a hard-earned victory will be eked out, by one goal, two at most. Anything more, and it’s dream world territory - Australian teams don’t lose by big margins at the best of times. How, then, do you describe this scoreline, recorded in the final match of the Deane Low Trophy series at the Runaway Bay Sports Centre in Tweed Heads on Saturday, December 18, 2010, with Australia needing to win to retain a trophy they have held since its inception in 1993. Australian Secondary Schoolgirls 0, New Zealand Secondary Schoolgirls 5 - yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, FIVE!!!!! "It was a pretty amazing performance", enthused an understandably delighted coach, Paul Temple, afterwards. "In the last eight games between us, there has only been a one-goal difference at most either way, so to win 5-0 is pretty special!" That’s an understatement if ever there was one! So how did this magnificent result in New Zealand’s footballing history come about? "After yesterday’s 2-2 draw, we sat down with the girls last night and showed them a ten-minute highlights package of Barcelona’s recent 5-0 thrashing of Real Madrid, the message behind this being that when two teams are so evenly matched, one has to step up to find the next level". New Zealand clearly did. And how! "It was a brilliant performance, a really dominant display which was delightful to watch at times, but it has been coming - it’s what the girls have been doing on the training pitch, and they produced that one- and two-touch football today". Katie Rood got the ball rolling in the 28th minute, but it was a terrific team goal, which started with Jess Reddaway bowling the ball out from the back. A string of one- and two-touch passes culminated in Rosie White turning and threading a pass through Australia’s defence to leave the jet-heeled Rood bearing down on goal. Her lone obstacle, the ‘keeper, was duly rounded and the ball gleefully despatched into the back of an empty net. Twelve minutes later, Rachel Head rampaged down the right before setting up Evie Millynn, who was brought down in the penalty area just as she was shaping to pull the trigger. Captain Nadia Pearl’s nerveless penalty put the Kiwis 2-0 up five minutes before half-time. So good was the Kiwi team’s display that, for the first time in his coaching career, Temple didn’t write a single thing down on his notepad during the first half. "It was a case of just encouraging them to keep it up and to press home their advantage, and they did." They didn’t earn any further reward for doing so until the 77th minute, when the inaugural OFC Women’s Player of the Year added another "golazo" to her burgeoning catalogue of wonder strikes. Holding the ball up on half-way, White swiftly spun then speared between two defenders, after which she thundered downfield before smashing home the goal which broke Australia’s resistance. "I’ve never seen an Australian team collectively give up like they did after we got our third goal", said Temple, who had two more goals to celebrate inside the last ten minutes. Half-time substitute Olivia Chance broke down the left to set up Steph Skilton for a six-yard tap-in ten minutes from time, the scorer having replaced White seconds earlier. And in the last minute, the provider turned scorer, Chance deftly dinking the ball over the Australian ‘keeper after being played through by fellow substitute Kate Loye. "The girls are really proud of the way they played today", said Temple. "They all played well, particularly Emily Stotter, who was absolute class given this was her starting debut. Her pass completion rate was 95% - outstanding "They’ve made history, and have done it in style. We’ll celebrate this, and enjoy ourselves a bit, but we’d like to complete the tour unbeaten, so will be making a big effort to keep our standards high on Monday". The NZ Secondary Schoolgirls final game of the tour is a friendly against Runaway Bay, which kicks off at 10pm NZ time at the Runaway Bay Sports Centre. Line-up:     Reddaway; Head, Boyce, Berger, Ward (Carlton, 75); Stotter (Carlsen, 70), Millynn (Loye, 70), Pearl; Skilton (Patterson, 46), White (Skilton, 80), Rood (Chance, 46)

Katie Rood - first scorer Steph Skilton - fourth scorer Nadia Pearl - nerveless penalty-taker Rachel Head - right wing raid Olivia Chance - final goal Kate Loye - set up final goal