Sam Kerr at the double as Matildas go back to back against New Zealand

Sam Kerr’s first-half brace has driven the Matildas to a win against New Zealand in their first match in Canberra since 2013. The nation’s all-time leading scorer was at her damaging best, bringing up her 58th and 59th international goals as Australia knocked off the Kiwis 3-1.

It meant back-to-back wins for the Matildas in their two-game series having won 2-1 in Townsville on Friday night. They had needed 37 shots in the first meeting to score twice but it only took five attempts to reach that mark in the nation’s capital, with captain Kerr and Hayley Raso giving them a 2-0 lead after 17 minutes.

The three-minute flurry saw the legendary Kerr unmarked to head home a corner before Raso curled one home on her left foot from outside the box without giving Kiwi keeper Erin Nayler a chance.

It was a brutal double blow to a New Zealand side which should have led on four minutes, but the usually lethal Hannah Wilkinson fired her shot wide after finding an acre of space on the counter-attack.

Playing the free-flowing, fast football coach Tony Gustavsson had demanded pre-game, Kerr, Mary Fowler, Caitlin Foord and Emily van Egmond combined crisp passes and burst forward at will.

Van Egmond pushed a great chance wide on 25 minutes but more than made up for it shortly after, playing a delightful chipped ball that allowed Kerr to beat the offside trap and double up with a sublime outside-foot finish for 3-0.

But New Zealand found some sort of lifeline on the stroke of half-time, with Wilkinson getting on to a clever pass from Olivia Chance and burrowing her way through defenders for an industrious goal.

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That meant a fourth straight match the Matildas had failed to keep a