KEY POINTS:
New Zealand women's coach Dean Rice says changes in the New Zealand game have to be made if the White Sox are going to compete at the highest levels internationally.
New Zealand failed to make next year's Beijing Olympics after losing the final of the Asia/Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament against hosts Chinese Taipei on Tuesday.
The Chinese won the best of the three-match final 2-0.
"We need to start identifying the young players who have the commitment and talent to want to be the best in the world and work with them," Rice said. "We always expect to be in the top five in the world but unless we do something drastic, we will be lucky to be in the top 10 at the next world championships."
The standard of play in the New Zealand game needed to improve so when the White Sox took on the world's best, there was not such a big gap.
There were positives in the Taiwan tournament, New Zealand picking up eight victories in round robin play, hitting the ball hard and fighting hard in tight games.
But the fact can't be missed that the White Sox lost to Chinese Taipei four times with the home side a level above the New Zealanders, Rice said.
"The standard of softball over there is a few levels up than what we thought it would be."
Chinese Taipei softballers had spent the past year undergoing an intensive training regime. "They have been sent to every tournament and have been training and playing every day as a team," Rice said.
He said New Zealand's hitters did their job at the tournament and the attitude of the players was fantastic. "The big thing that hurt us was the fact we gave up early runs.
"Against Chinese Taipei, we found ourselves being down six or seven runs after the first couple of innings.
"You can pull one or two runs back in a game but when you are chasing six or seven, it puts too much pressure on the team."
- NZPA
