What should have been a Sunday stroll for the Aussies nearly turned into a nightmare as the Dutch shook them with a first minute goal through Ellen Dubbeldam-Kuipers. The Aussies gradually settled down and went on to outplay the Dutch.

Alyson Annan equalised in the 23rd and in the next minute, Julie Towers put her team ahead. Past the 21st minute of the second-half, Juliet Haslam made it 3-1 and the Aussies looked home. But they fell back to defend and allowed the Dutch to put together a few attacks, one of which led to a penalty corner that Julie Deiters converted, with eight minutes on the clock.

The final moments were extremely agonising for the Aussies with the Dutch, egged on by the capacity 15,000 crowd, swarmed all over the rival territory. It was a wonder that the Aussies hung onto the slender lead as Jeannette Lewin twice missed the target from close in the last five minutes.

The start was quite dramatic with the Dutch scoring 55 seconds after the pass-back when Dubbeldam-Kuipers scrambled the ball in after a Susan van der Wielden free-hit.

Annan then missed two golden chances when her penalty corner drive was well stopped by the goalkeeper and then she shot over from close after being put through by Claire Mitchell-Taverner. But she scored a truly delightful goal which she flicked in after wrong-footing the goalkeeper, off a through pass from Rachelle Hawkes.

Aussies immediately consolidated their position when Towers pushed the ball in from a hectic goal-mouth melee following an Annan penalty corner drive. The Australian dominance was more in evidence after the cross-over and sure enough Haslam got a touch to Towers' penalty corner hit for the third goal before the Dutch began their fightback that was marked by Deiters' penalty corner conversion.

The Australians, who hadwon the Cup at Dublin four year ago under the stewardship of Ric Charlesworth, remained the only unbeaten team in the competition.

Annan was adjudged Best Player of the Tournament as she was also the tournament's leading scorer with a tally of eight goals. Argentina's goalkeeper Laura Estela Mulhall was named the Best Goalkeeper of the competition.

GERMANY PREVAIL: Earlier, Germany snatched a 3-2 win over Argentina to push the South American champions to fourth place. The conclusion of the closely fought game witnessed emotional scenes with the Argentine girls collapsing on the pitch in tears while the Germans did a lap of honour. In touching scenes of camaraderie, the Germans hugged and consoled their rivals.

The German match-winner came eight minutes from the close with a goal from Inga Moller. Earlier, the Germans had scored through Katrin Kauschke (39th) and Tanja Dickenscheid (51st) while for Argentina, Vanina Paula Oneto converted two penalty corners.

KOREA FIFTH: Korea retainedtheir fifth position in the overall standings after defeating New Zealand 4-3, while South Africa, fifth in the previous World Cup, ended up seventh as they defeated the United States 4-2 on penalties after the teams were locked goalless despite extra-time.

Final standings (previous ranking in brackets)

1.Australia (1st);
2. Holland (6th);
3.Germany (4th);
4.Argentina (2nd);
5.Korea (5th);
6.New Zealand (7th, 1990);
7. South Africa (5th);
8.The United States (3rd);
9. England (8th);
10.Scotland (10th, 1986);
11.China (7th);
12.India (11th, 1983).