Fiona Coghlan took encouragement from Ireland's brave display against the USA and the talented prop is targeting a winning finish to the Women's World Cup pool stages.

So far the girls in green have been up against it in Edmonton - the Irish are seeded 10th of the 12 nations at the tournament but came up against France (third seeds) and the Americans (sixth) in recent days.

Currently tenth in the table, Philip Doyle's team tackle basement side South Africa on Friday (kick-off 7pm Irish time) with victory their sole objective.

Having conceded 11 tries in the two defeats to France and the USA, Ireland might finally get a chance to cut loose, in an attacking sense, against the relatively unknown South Africans.

Friday's opponents have fared worse, leaking 22 tries and 142 points in their two fixtures to date in Canada.

Looking ahead to the contest, Coghlan said: "We've been improving each game and improving at each training session. We've to bring that into the final game against South Africa.

"A win obviously is most important, you have to play well to win so we'll be looking to do that - pretty much the same as today (against the USA), but up it a bit more.

"We have to keep improving and give ourselves a chance of making the middle tier (5th-8th place) of the tournament," added the 25-year-old PE teacher.

A sizeable improvement in Ireland's all-round performance levels, from last week's 43-0 loss to the French, was particularly pleasing for coach Doyle.

The Blackrock clubman said: "We are very aware of how hard our draw was, but today was a massive improvement on the France game and we must do the same again on Friday. I feel the South Africans are there for the taking - let's hope for some of that famous Irish luck."