Japan assistant coach Ollie Richardson looks ahead to Sunday's Pool C match against New Zealand

Japan assistant coach Ollie Richardson looks ahead to Sunday's Pool C match against New Zealand at Sandy Park on the second weekend of the Women's Rugby World Cup.

Ollie Richardson, assistant coach

On how the Japanese players will have to deal with the Black Ferns' speed and physicality:

“We can only be who we can be, we can’t pretend to be anyone else. We are incredibly well drilled, very technically astute and our conditioning level is outstanding.”

On how Japan can compete with New Zealand:

“Luckily enough they are only allowed 15 on the field and we’re allowed 15 on the field, and they are human, so there is always a chance. They are a great team, they do bring high levels of physicality, but we have been working very hard over a long period of time to give it our best shot."

On what he has improved during his time with the Sakura 15:

“I’ve only been with this team for the last eight months. Physically, what we have tried to do is tailor everything in our training to really match our game model, the way Les wants to play, the way the players want to play rugby over a long time and at a high intensity. We’ve also developed physically in the gym and developed physically on the field but mainly the thing I think we have changed is bringing everything together and being as aligned as we can.”