Two goals in the last seven minutes crowned a stirring fightback by New Zealand in their final secondary schoolgirls international against Australia on October 2 on North Harbour Stadium’s outer oval, but it proved to be too late for the home team, as their tiring trans-tasman rivals scored a 3-2 victory to once again ensure the Deane Low Shield would take up residency on West Island for another year. Needing to win to square the three-test series, the Kiwis got off to the worst possible start when Australia opened the scoring in the fifth minute. Tenneille Shaw sent Krystina Walker scurrying to the by-line on the right, from where she whipped in a cross. New Zealand’s captain, Hannah Rishworth, who produced a magnificent individual display from which her side drew much inspiration, stepped in to avert the danger, but her clearance sat up perfectly for Shaw, who unleashed a sweetly struck rising twenty-yard left-foot volley which crashed into the net via the far post. Unperturbed, the Kiwis came right back at their rivals, with a brilliant piece of play in the seventh minute by Petria Rennie - playing with a hamstring strain - creating an opening for Sarah Gregorius. Carys Hawkins, who was rock-solid in the assured Australian rearguard, sent the striker tumbling in the penalty area, but well-positioned referee Jan-Hendrik Hintz saw nothing wrong with the challenge, and play continued. After Kylie Nicolaci had headed another Walker cross across the face of goal, the same pair combined in telling fashion in the nineteenth minute to double the Australians’ advantage. Walker lobbed the ball forward, and Nicolaci got in between Rishworth and the advancing Aroon Clansey to coolly lift the ball over the goalkeeper from ten yards. With Vanessa Hart calling the tune in midfield, the Australians were enjoying the upper hand against a Kiwi side whose own "centro-campistas" were tending to drop far too deep, affording their opponents free reign in this key area of the battle. One of the main beneficiaries of this was Australian captain Melissa Feuerriegel, who often found herself unmarked, and unchallenged whenever she took the ball forward. On one such raid, she picked out a pass to Andrea Totsidis, who spotted Clansey off her line and cheekily chipped the ‘keeper from twenty-five yards. Her enterprise deserved better fate than to see the ball hit the top of the crossbar in the 33rd minute. Two minutes later, Rishworth decided enough was enough, and set off down the left on a splendid solo run which her team-mates simply stood and admired - none of them even considered the fact that their captain might require their support to make in-roads on goal, as she encountered three Australians upon busting into their defensive third! That Rishworth managed to earn a corner for her side against such odds says much for her desire to reduce the deficit. She deserved better than to direct her header, from Hannah Bromley’s resulting set-piece delivery, over the crossbar ten minutes before the interval. Six minutes later, the home team spurned another opening in their quest for goals. Gregorius engineered a tremendous opening which had the Australian defence all at sea, but from twenty yards, the otherwise well-performed Emma Harrison opted to shoot first-time, and directed her effort wide when she had time to control the ball and pick her spot past the to-date untested Erin Herd. The ever-dangerous Walker took full advantage of a Kelly Tunnicliffe blunder to bustle through just before the interview, but the striker’s low cross found no-one up in support. A similar situation evolved in the 48th minute, when Hawkins slipped Nicolaci through on goal. Clansey raced off her line to save at the striker’s feet.

New Zealand quickly forced a succession of corners in the next couple of minutes, the last of Bromley’s deliveries being plucked off the head of Rishworth by Herd, who promptly launched a counter-attack. With the Kiwis beating a hasty retreat, Walker took full advantage of a ricochet upon blocking Rennie’s clearance and fired in a cross. Rishworth had raced back, but could only direct her clearance to Totsidis, who threaded a pass through to Michaela Day. The unmarked midfielder rendered Clansey an onlooker in the one-on-one situation, finishing in style to afford the Australians a three-goal cushion. The Australians looked to press home their advantage, but met with fierce resistance from their Kiwi counterparts. Clansey plucked a Totsidis free-kick off the head of Walker, prior to Bromley intercepting a Nicolaci through ball intended for her front-running partner. And Rishworth raced back to thwart the luckless Australian number twelve just shy of the hour mark, after Walker had again exposed crevices in the Kiwi rearguard. But the visitors, who had used all their substitutes come the 66th minute, were clearly tiring, and this situation saw New Zealand redouble their efforts to turn the situation around. Bromley fired in a vicious free-kick from deep to the far post, where a posse of Kiwi players, among them Rishworth, Leah Tagaloa and Gregorius, were thwarted by the efforts of Herd, who pawed the ball to safety. Two minutes later, a superbly timed tackle by Melissa Frankcombe stopped Gregorius in full flight, after the striker had taken on the Australian defence on receipt of Bromley’s ball forward. The visitors’ swift counter-attack saw Nicolaci racing through, but with the fast-closing Rishworth bearing down on her, the striker lashed her shot over the crossbar. The last fifteen minutes saw the Kiwis bombarding the Australian goal in pursuit of a share of the spoils, and their persistence very nearly paid off. Bromley battered a free-kick goalwards which Herd tipped onto the post. Gregorius was first to react to the rebound, but saw her shot deflected wide. After Rishworth and Rennie had combined to thwart Nicolaci and Ellie Brush, the home team finally gained some reward for their efforts when Bromley thundered a thirty-yard free-kick past the flailing arms of Herd - 3-1. The goal, which came seven minutes from time, gave New Zealand renewed hope, and substitutes Susi Peterson and Toni West came close to bolstering it further in the 89th minute. The former’s long throw-in picked out the latter, whose volley screamed inches over the crossbar with Herd beaten. But the Kiwis weren’t to be denied a second goal, and Bromley’s ball forward in stoppage time saw Tagaloa racing between defenders into the penalty area. The striker was sent sprawling by one of her opponents, leaving referee Hintz little option - penalty. Up stepped Rishworth, who crowned an outstanding performance with the goal she merited by ramming the ball home from the spot, and with the deficit now reduced to a solitary goal, the comeback was well and truly on. But time was against the Kiwi combination, the final whistle being greeted with much relief by Australia, 3-2 victors on the day, and series winners of the Deane Low Shield once more. New Zealand:     Clansey; Rennie, Rishworth, Bromley, Tunnicliffe (Dale, 87); Vincent (West, 82), Lankshear (Tagaloa, 46), Hoyle (Peterson, 85), Harrison; Gregorius (Neilson, 85), Fitzsimons Australia:     Herd; Hawkins, Owens (Brush, 58), Day (Blacka, 66); Shaw, Hart, Feuerriegel, Totsidis, Tavolaro (Frankcombe, 41); Nicolaci, Walker (Rollason, 61) Referee:     Jan-Hendrik Hintz