Teenage midfielder Lucilla Wright scored the only goal to help England beat India 1-0 when the ninth women's World Cup got under way in Utrecht yesterday. Schoolgirl Wright cracked in an unstoppable shot in the 19th minute after Jane Smith's stinging penalty corner drive had been parried by the goalkeeper.
England captain Kirsty Bowden (20), one of 12 players in the squad making their World Cup debuts, admitted it hadn't been a convincing performance but said they were delighted with three points.
Coach Maggie Souyave said: "We've plenty to improve on and the next game against Holland should be better. We should have penetrated their circle more but in the end we were relieved to win."
Scotland lost 5-0 to the defending champions Australia who dominated the game from start to finish but took time to break down a dogged defence.
Australian coach Ric Charlesworth said: "We put in a solid performance but didn't finish as well as I would have liked. We earned 13 penalty corners and only managed to score from two."
South Africa, in beating China 2-1, confirmed the good impression they gave when winning the qualifying tournament in Harare last year.
As in Harare, the South Africans' star was striker Pietie Coetzee who struck both their goals from penalty corners. The Chinese replied with a goal on the buzzer from Chunling Tang.
Another of the qualifiers from the qualifying tournament, New Zealand, almost pulled off the shock of the opening day leading five-time world champions the Netherlands 1-0 before going down 2-1.
World Cup (Utrecht) - Women: Pool A: Australia 5 (B Langham 18, J Towers 24, K Powell 45 65, A Annan 48) Scotland 0; South Africa 2 (P Coetzee 6, 50) China 1 (C Tang 70); Germany 5 (B Becker 29, N Keller 32, C Reiter 35, N Ernsting-Krienke 39, I Moller 67) USA 1 (A Lucas 46); Pool B: England 1 (L Wright 19) India 0; Argentina 2 (V Oneto 18, A Gulla 35) South Korea 1 (Kwan Sook Choi 14); Netherlands 2 (C Thate 32, S van der Wielen 57) New Zealand 1 (T Bell-Kake).
Today: Men: Pool A: Germany v India; South Korea v New Zealand; Netherlands v Canada; Pool B: Poland v Australia; Malaysia v Pakistan; Spain v England; Women: Pool B: England v Netherlands; Argentina v India; South Korea v New Zealand
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