Dan Cron: Black Ferns forwards coach on their win against Spain, their next clash against Japan

The women's Rugby World Cup is well and truly underway, with the second round of action beginning later on tonight. 

The Black Ferns had a strong showing in their opener, beating Spain 54-8, but understandably had a little rust with it being their first match in 7 weeks. They’ll be looking for an improved performance to pick up their second win against Japan on Monday morning.  

Ahead of their round two fixture, D'Arcy caught up with forwards coach to Dan Cron to discuss what he liked and disliked about their first game, how their younger players are adapting, and how this World Cup is different to ones he has experienced in the past. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Wildgrave from News Talk Sedby.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
First up, we've got Dan kron Ford's coach of the
Black Ferns, Woman's ruggy World Cup well and truly underweight.
Second round of action beginning later. Over the weekend, black
Ferns did well against Spain fifty four eight. It was
a wee bit rusty, but they're looking for their second
win against Japan. It's one o'clock on Monday morning. It's

(00:35):
in Excident. You can watch it on Sky Sport one
and were going now to the Black Ferns forwards. Coach
Dan Krome. Morning to you, Dan, I trust you well
and pretty excited. It's been a week now arsence the
last game pretty much. How are your athletes feeling here?

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Good morning, Thanks to you, Tommy. It's just been awesome
getting over here, but even better to get our first game.
Not not out of the way, but you've sort of
been building for a while when we hadn't played since
the State of July, so to say that the players
are pretty excited was probably understatement.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
So as far as the raster is concerned, what are
the areas you identified as needing to be lifted before
you take on Japan after that Spanish fixture. Look, Japan
aren't ranked through the roof, but you can take no
teams lightly in this competition.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Oh no, no, definitely not. Japan well coached and as
you presume, they are very proud proud nations are very
fit and efficient. You know, if the game was a
susand minutes long, you know they'll be world champions. So
they were understimating them whatsoever. Yeah, you're probably right about
the russ from the first game you played in seven
or eight weeks, you know, so we busted you know,

(01:47):
quite a bit of that off. But also looking for
a good performance up front from our forwards, starts up
with our scrum and their line out. Japan bring a
huge spread at the breakdown, and we were okay against Spain,
but not awesome. So that's probably been our main folk
for the week.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Accuracy would be one of those points, wouldn't it, Dan.
You need to be able to hit those marks, and
I get the feeling the athletes were maybe a beat
or so off during that Spanish fixture, so that's something
that you need to tweak and tighten. Yet.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Oh yeah, absolutely, you can see it in the way
we trained this week, and you know, we know our
DNA and the style we play isn't the safest rugby,
you know, so there you expect a few eras here
and there. There's probably too many ents Spain for our liking,
so we've definitely come attention into that. Just when you
haven't played for a while, it's just just the combinations
and lines, and when you're a bit excited, you sort

(02:39):
of overrun the ball a bit. So you obviously down
to thirteen for the last twenty sort of sort of
affected air our game plan a bit there. So pretty
excited about Sunday in the Challenge Japan.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Face you lost three players to injury, Dan, what are
the condition of those three? Just describe their recovery if
you will.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, obviously, you know, not not nice things there on
Sunday with tie. Thankfully it's not broken. We're actually found
out by the by the end of the game. The
medical solirities here are amazing, so you know, so they're
in good medical care. They're all still here so they
haven't been seen home, which is a positive. So we're
hoping that they're going to be okay and hopefully We'll
get a little bit more information over the next few days,

(03:20):
but fingers crossing them all.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So you're running a squad of what thirty two players.
You've said you want to make sure everybody gets a
game in the first two fixtures, So looking at combinations
continuity a little difficult when you are giving the entire
squad a run, right.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, we've got a squad of thirty two. We've had
an overall goal of hoping that every Black fan can
get a game in the first two games to represent
their country and put their beast forward to four forth selection.
We've been quite lucky over this year to you know,
with our bombos to sort of mix and match and
and through the opicky team. So moving forward, I think

(04:00):
we'll be rolling out our best team print soon.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
You've been around the block, mister Kron. What about you
younger players though, the debutantes, the freshees that have never
been at such an enormous tournament before. The energy behind
these young women, how is that?

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Oh? Pretty epic to be honest, Wels, We've got some
I said last week, we've got a great mix of experience,
you know, Black fans that have won two or three
World Cups or gold medalists to a couple of girls
that could only legally drink a few months ago, you know,
So it's all pretty exciting, and you know, this is
my sixth World Cup and it just that it just
doesn't get old, to be honest, in terms of surprising me, No,

(04:40):
no one's surprised me. That's just delivered it as I
thought they would, because that's why we picked them. We've
had a couple that have really improved in the professional
environment over the last twelve to twenty four months. So
pretty proud to see them out there playing for their country.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
There's the understatement of the interview. I'm really looking forward
to the rest of this tournament, especially when it gets
to the pointed end. What have you noticed particularly about
the World Cut, the changes over the year years we
were at now even compared to the New Zealand World
Cup last time around, have you noticed much except for

(05:14):
the enormous size of the thing.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, it's just an epic, awesome tournament, you know, Like
I'm having four to six teams based in every sort
of town just brings another sort of atmosphere sort of
I'm used to sort of traveling in and traveling out,
so to spend eight to nine days in different towns
around England is an awesome experience, mix and mingling with
the different teams. The biggest thing that stands out for

(05:38):
me is I was at the twenty ten Women's Rugby
World Cup. Is just the support, the fans, the media coverage.
It's just on steroid reading today. I think our game
against Island sold out, The finals sold out last week,
so you know, it's just putting fuel on the fire,
just just how much excitement there is.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
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