Melbourne, Nov. 29: Defending champions Australia stormed to the top of the standings in the men’s field hockey Champions Trophy with a crushing 7-2 victory over title rivals Netherlands.

It was the highest margin for a win by Australia over the Netherlands in their 31 encounters at Champions Trophy tournaments.

The hosts stretched their unbeaten run over the Dutch to six Trophy encounters with a dominating display to back up their opening day 4-0 rout of South Korea.

In the day’s other matches, South Korea came from a goal down early in the second half to beat Olympic champions Germany 5-3 and Spain equalised in the last three minutes to draw 3-3 with England.

The Dutch have now failed to win any of their last nine matches against Australia at the Champions Trophy, World Cup and Olympics.

Grant Schubert scored a first-half hat-trick as the Australians went to half-time 5-1 up and in firm control. The Netherlands scored first, a second-minute penalty corner to Taeke Taekema, but the Kookaburras hit back with Schubert’s triple and debut Trophy goals to Brett Dancer and Glenn Turner, extinguishing any hopes of a Dutch win.

Schubert started the avalanche with a penalty stroke conversion, Turner drove home a field goal and Dancer flicked a penalty corner conversion on a variation before Schubert pounced again with field goals inside two minutes just before the break.

Dutch coach Michel van den Heuvel admitted the match was lost in the calamitous first half.

Australia did not apply the same pressure on the Netherlands in the second half, disappointing their coach Ric Charlesworth.