Lane confident of Dutch direction

Former Australia women's coach Chris Lane relocated to the Netherlands in at the start of the 2013/14 season to take on the task of leading the Dutch to Rio. However this season has been a second year in the wilderness for the Dutch, who lost their World Series place?˜shortly beford Chris' arrival and were unable to regain it at the World Series qualifier in last September. The year has also seen the loss of captain Linda Franssen, through retirement, and leading player Kelly van Harskamp, whose baby is due this summer.

Despite that the team have been active, winning the Las Vegas Sevens and finishing third in Hong Kong. Two weeks ago the team visited England, where they narrowly lost three ganes,?˜before moving on to France where they won a three-team tournament beating France 2-0 (with one draw) and Tunisia 3-0. We caught up with Chris Lane after his team straight after they returned to Amsterdam.

?˜Rapidly. Every tournament you see improvements in different areas of the game from different contries. The skill level and?˜speed of the matches has really impressed me. It is obvious how much a team like Brazil has developed due to the regular participation in the World Series.?˜