Riki Flutey: Black Ferns backs and skills coach on the injuries, clash against Japan

The Black Ferns’ opening Rugby World Cup win has come at a cost.  

They crushed Spain at the start of the week, claiming victory 45-8, but lost loose forward Kaipo Olsen-Baker to injury. 

However Back and Skills coach Riki Flutey told Ryan Bridge they’re confident Olsen-Baker, along with outside backs Ayesha Leti-I’iga and Amy du Plessis will play in next week’s clash against Ireland.  

But before that is a clash against Japan, and the Ferns aren’t taking the team lightly. 

Flutey told Bridge there’s threats throughout the Japanese team, but they’re confident in the team’s ability to defeat them. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Injury update for the Black Ferns this morning. They crushed
Spain of course forty five eighths. It was the win
to start the week. Next up they take on Japan
at Sandy Park in England. That's one am our time,
Monday morning. Ricky Foti is a Black Ferns Backs and
Skills coach and joins me this morning. Ricky, Good morning, Yeah,
good morning Ryan.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
How are you doing you well?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yeah? Really well? How are your girls doing? How the
injury is looking.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Now? Our ladies are good, mate, As you were seen,
we had a couple of middles throughout the game there
with Kai, Poetia and Dups picking up little injuries. But
they all really need further assessment on their return to
play and they're in great hands of our medical staff.

(00:44):
But we're really confident that they are going to be
available next week actually.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
So they'll be there for Ireland.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, they'll be available for selection, that's what we're hoping.
But we'll get that. We'll get that information the next
couple of days from our medics.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Everyone's downplaying the significance of the Japan game. You guys aren't.
What's the what's the challenges there? What are you state,
what are you strategizing focusing.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
On No, Hey, just like Spain, really we're not. We're
not taking Japan lightly at all. We're respecting them. You know, Hey,
it's it's a Rugby World Cup. You know, Japan well
coached and our hard working team. They've got they've got
threats throughout their team. But we're really confident with the

(01:34):
team that we're going with, you know that that that
we can beat this this Japan team. So yeah, they've
got their game from what we've seen, they've got really
good set piece, they've got a good kicking game. They
vary their kicking game. And the other part is they're
one of the top steps around turnover balls, so really

(01:58):
good tacklers and they always looking at turning the ball over.
So a couple of things that we're aware of in
their game. But you know, we're going into this game
more focusing on us and how we needed to improve
off the back of our Spain performance. Spain, as I mentioned,

(02:19):
they showed a lot of heart and a lot of
passion in their game and put us under pressure and
put our skill sets under pressure. So we were a
little bit clunky and our timing was often a lot
of parts of our game and having an area rate
of around twenty two. You know, we're going into this
game making sure that we're a lot more clinical than

(02:40):
our Spain performance.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Ricky, what's the vibe like, what are the crowds like?
What's the atmosphere like? Then?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Oh, hey, the Okay, the English have done a fantastic
job and Will Rugby done a fantastic job around promoting
the World Cup here in England. When we're up York
through that whole week leading into our Spain game, just
the city had an awesome vibe around it. You know,
a lot of locals all knew that the World Cup

(03:08):
was in you could tell with the energy that was
around the city. And then heading to the game against Spain, Hey,
it was it was pretty electrone. The crowd was into
it and that was an awesome, awesome vibe and I
think the girls loved it. And I'm sure as the

(03:29):
Pool games move on and get into the playoffs, that
energy and it is going to be something awesome.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Good luck for this weekend, Ricky.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, awesome, Thank you very much, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
That's Ricky Flooty Black Ferns Backs and Skills coach with
it for more Familily Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
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