THE HAGUE: Defending champions Australia cruised into final of the men’s hockey World Cup final with an dominant 5-1 semi-final demolition of Argentina here at the Kyocera Stadium here on Friday.

A day after their female counterparts reached the final with a thrilling shootout victory over the US, Australia’s men provided no heart attacks as they carried on their superb form to stay unbeaten the showpiece.

The match was all but decided by halftime, after a near-flawless 35 minutes that delivered three goals for Australia and zero shots on goal for Argentina.

The kookaburras were nearly as impressive after the break, adding a further two goals.

It sets up a dream showdown with hosts the Netherlands, who earlier on Friday booked their place in Sunday’s final with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over England.

After just four minutes Kieran Govers had opened the scoring from a penalty corner with his fourth goal of the tournament, continuing Australia’s terrific record of striking early.

Australia’s second goal was delivered when Govers earned a penalty corner and Jeremy Hayward drilled it home the first of his two goals.

By the time Jacob Whetton produced a sensational reverse-stick strike to stretch the advantage to three goals, with halftime in sight, the result was virtually assured.

Not even a green card, and two-minute sin bin, for Australia’s five-time player-of-the-year Jamie Dwyer could stop the slaughter.

Dwyer was accused of “taking the mickey” by umpire Hamish Jamson, and was punished for time-wasting after denying Argentina the opportunity to take a quick free hit early in the second half.

Australia drilled home their advantage with Chris Ciriello and Hayward again converting penalty corners as the lead ballooned.

With 12 minutes remaining, the Kookaburras conceded just their second goal of the tournament when Argentina’s penalty-corner specialist and the event’s leading scorer, Gonzalo Peillat, breached the defences of goalkeeper Andrew Charter.

Earlier, England’s men failed to reach the World Cup final.

Mink van der Weerden’s deflected penalty corner put the Netherlands ahead just five minutes before the break.

England were the stronger side in the second half, as they pushed forward in search of an equaliser, but the Dutch defence held firm.

England were attempting to reach their first World Cup final since 1986, when they took silver.

It is the fifth time since being crowned European champions in 2009 that England have lost a semi-final, following defeats at the Europeans (twice), the Commonwealth Games and the World League Final.

England had the first chance just 17 seconds into the match as Ashley Jackson’s shot was saved by goalkeeper Jaap Stockmann but after that the Dutch dominated the rest of the half.

After the break, England began to create chances, with Jackson having the best opportunity from a penalty corner, but Bobby Crutchley’s side could not find a way through.

Meanwhile, in the women’s classification match for 7-8 positions South Korea downed Germany 4-2.

In another women’s classification game, for 9-10 positions, South Africa blanked Japan 2-0.

Aussie women face the Netherlands in the final on Saturday, when the third-place playoff between the US and Argentina will be also be staged.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2014