The Australian Matildas and the New Zealand Football Ferns in action in 2013. The Matildas lost 7-0 to an under-15 boys team in Sydney this week.

OPINION: No one savours an Australian sporting thrashing more than a Kiwi, but the Matildas' seven-goal hiding by a bunch of 15-year-old boys, is basically old hat.

The Newcastle Jets' boys squad waltzed around the Matildas this week, thumping the world's fifth-ranked women's football team 7-0.

But New Zealand fans shouldn't be salivating over at a potential series victory when the 16th-ranked Football Ferns take on the Matildas across the pond next week.

The only surprise at the lopsided result in Sydney was the use of the word "surprising" in Australian news media reports.

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Let's give it some Kiwi context.

If Olympic Games champion Valerie Adams, 31, had a shot putting competition with former world junior champ Jacko Gill, 21, would anyone expect Adams to win (if they were both using the same sized ball of steel?) Of course not.

Adams has a personal best of 21.24m with the 4kg shot. Gill has hurled 20.75m with a 7.26kg shot.

A young bloke can fling the shot further than a grown woman, even one as powerful as Valerie Adams.

The same principle applies in football.

Women's teams have been battered by boys' sides for decades.

The Matildas certainly aren't the first to suffer such a lopsided defeat.

New Zealand's Football Ferns also play boys sides at training camps in Auckland, and, truth be told, probably lose more often than not.

A New Zealand national women's league coach reckons his team have played nine or 10 times against 13 to 14 year old boys teams in the last couple of years, and probably won once.

But those results have never fazed him, and he is convinced the Matildas coaches wouldn't be worried at the margin in Newcastle.

'Physiological fact'

Female football teams play boys to challenge themselves physically so they have to perform under pressure.

Everything has to be done that much quicker, from receiving a ball, playing a pass, shooting at goal or closing down an opponent.

The top women can look like Messi against fellow females, but messy against a side of spotty youths straining at the leash.

A bunch of 15-year-old boys will generally be faster and have more power behind their pass or shot than a group of women in their teens and 20s.

That's a physiological fact.

But, it doesn't necessarily mean the boys are technically better.

The quota of two-footed, technically adept players in New Zealand's national women's league is at least as high, if not higher, than in its male equivalent.

Playing boys sides is an occupational hazard for aspiring women's footballers on both sides of the Tasman.

New Zealand's domestic club competitions aren't good enough to prepare players for the national league arena, let alone international football.

@AnnOdong @behindthegamefc Cheers Ann, just thought Matildas brand might be a little more protected than being exposed in that manner — Joey Peters (@joeypeters10) May 25, 2016

A Mainland Premier Women's League club in Christchurch recently lost 23-0 to one of the two top teams, and 21-3 to the other.

The saddest aspect of the Matilda's mauling in Newcastle was the fact the score was released.

This was a practice game and the Matildas - like the Football Ferns - have a number of top players based overseas, so they wouldn't have been fielding their best lineup.

Games like this are generally played behind closed doors with the results largely irrelevant.

It's harder to keep scorelines private these days in the social media era.

The 7-0 shellacking sounds bad, but the Matildas will still go in as favourites when they take on the Football Ferns in Ballarat and Melbourne.

IMAGES FROM MATCH DAY