Tommy Smith’s New Zealand claimed third place at the Oceania Nations Cup overnight with a 4-3 victory over hosts the Solomon Islands. West Brom’s Chris Wood netted a hat-trick and Shane Smeltz, who plays in Australia with the Perth Glory, hit the winner in injury time.
Coach Ricki Herbert made a number of changes to the side which lost to New Caledonia in the semi-finals and Smith, who was winning his 16th full cap, was one of eight players starting who will be with the Oly Whites at this summer’s Olympics.
Smith, who again skippered the side, was withdrawn eight minutes after the break with his team ahead 3-1 to remove any risk of a booking which would have led to a suspension for the next stage of World Cup qualifying.
Progression into the semi-finals saw the All Whites into the third stage of qualification for Brazil 2014 in September, but the lucrative place in next summer’s Confederations Cup, also in Brazil, went to Tahiti after they beat New Caledonia 1-0 in the Oceania Nations Cup final, also played overnight.
Smith was pleased to get third place even if the tournament as a whole ultimately proved to be a disappointment: "Obviously we would’ve preferred to be playing in the final but we knew we had a job to do and thankfully we got that win.”
The 22-year-old was delighted for room-mate Wood, adding on Twitter: "Congratulations to the roomy [Chris Wood] for netting his first international hat-trick!
"Well done to the lads for bouncing back and getting third. Temperature must have been pushing 40 but the workrate stayed high.”
Smith’s next game with New Zealand will be a pre-Olympics friendly against Japan in Tokyo on July 11th. The Oly Whites, an U23 side plus three overage players, take on Belarus (July 27th), Egypt (July 29th) and Brazil (August 1st) at London 2012.
The central defender will miss much of Town's pre-season programme, which starts on July 5th, due to his involvement with New Zealand.
Photo: Action Images