New Zealand have started their OFC U-16 Women’s Championship title defence with a comfortable 4-0 win over Tonga in Apia.
A hat-trick from Isla Robson proved pivotal, as the reigning champions held off a spirited Tongan effort to record their first three points of the 2025 tournament.
New Zealand had never scored under seven goals in four previous meetings between the two nations at U-16 women’s level but found it much tougher to exert the same level of dominance on this occasion.
Tonga did well to hold out for 25 minutes, surviving shots from Robson, Charlotte Summers, and Amelia Hitchcock through the opening exchanges.
Robson was the one to eventually make the breakthrough though, pivoting in the penalty box and finding the top left corner of the net on her right foot.
She was the scorer of the second goal just before half-time too, capitalising on an error from Tongan goalkeeper Temaleti Taufaao to tap the ball into an empty net.
Tonga still had hopes of rescuing something from the game and upped the attacking intensity at the start of the second half.
India-May Mann twice came close for them but was only able to find the gloves of Nienke Mei Lemmens on both occasions.
The New Zealand substitutes combined in the 67th minute to kill any hopes of a Tongan resurgence though, Mia Humphrey meeting a cross from Eden Chaytor to score her country’s third goal.
Hitchcock, the captain, twice had the opportunity to add a fourth goal, first forcing a double-save out of Taufaao, and then skying a close-range shot over the bar.
Robson was the one to get the fourth, completing her hat-trick in the sixth minute of injury-time, after turning Humphrey’s low cross into the bottom-right corner of the net.
It marks only the fourth time in OFC U-16 Women’s Championship history that New Zealand have been kept to less than five goals in a match.
They face the other Group B winners, the Solomon Islands, next Tuesday, whilst Tonga will attempt to keep their campaign alive against tournament debutants American Samoa.
New Zealand: 4 (Isla ROBSON 25’, 45’, 90+6′ , Mia HUMPHREY 67’)
Tonga: 0
HT: 2-0