It's been a tough several days for the USA women's national team after they lost to Italy in their opening game of the Rugby World Cup.
They have had to examine that game and learn from it but at the same time focus on a crucial game against Japan.
"We are excited for this weekend," said Head Coach Rob Cain. Obviously, coming off a loss of any kind is never the best start to any tournament but we knew how close the group would be and we prepared ourselves for what might have happened if we didn’t get the win, and very much our focus turned very quickly to not just beating Japan but putting in a really, really pleasing performance and ticking all of the boxes that we speak about during the week so that we can control our own destiny for the quarterfinals."
"Looking back at the opening game we definitely had some disappointment straightaway,'added wing Tess Feury, who gets the start in the Japan game, which kicks off at 12:30AM (ET) October 15. "We didn’t perform at the ability we know we can, but our fire has been fueled and we’ve been working all week to make those changes to put into action this weekend. We definitely want to build on the platform we set against Italy. We want to bring a lot more pace, momentum and physicality, which we know we are capable of. We want to run them off the field and put a lot of points up."
The that translates into something more simple from Cain.
"We just need to win."
"The biggest thing that we want to highlight out is set piece," added captain Kate Zackary. "Going into the match that will be a really strong suit for us, working our way down the field from set piece to penalty to another set piece to a try is going to be our biggest outcome. And when we don’t get that right it’s about going back to the basics and focusing on what we’re good at which is that pace and physicality."
