Sylvia Brunt of New Zealand is tackled by England defenders. Photo: Photosport
The Black Ferns will clash with Ireland for only the third time in history when they open their WXV 1 campaign in Canada on Monday.
The last time the two nations played in 2016 in Dublin, with New Zealand winning by 30 points.
A similar result in Vancouver would buoy the Black Ferns for what is likely to be a testing tournament where they will also play England and France in pool play.
Coming off a loss to England at Tickenham assistant coach Tony Christie said the New Zealanders needed to "step it up a notch" during the second year of the WXV 1 tournament.
"Looking back on the England game we had some opportunities that we didn't take particularly early on so our ability to get that ball to the space [needs to improve] and then defensively we're really happy with our physicality but we just let them off the hook with a couple of mis-reads and some individual tackles so just small margins for us."
Ireland's kicking game had caught the attention of the Black Ferns and it was an area they had identified that needed to be shut down.
"They've led the Six Nations in terms of kick metres and average kick metres so they've got a great kicking game and then in terms of their ruck speed on attack they were number one for ruck speed so put those two things combined around playing in the right areas and playing at tempo and pace I think they've developed really well."
The "massive left boot" of first five Aoife Dalton - which helped Ireland to this month's upset win over Australia - and the speed of backrower Aoife Wafer were part of the Black Ferns' focus.
Christie said stopping the quality ball Dalton received would help the New Zealanders counterattack.
Moving Black Ferns co-captain Ruahei Demant from first five to second five, and Hannah King taking the number 10 jersey, against England was a move that was "one of a couple of combinations" in the backline and one that Christie was pleased with but wouldn't commit to a permanent shift.
"Hannah's distribution was excellent put the ball out in front of our forwards and our backs nice and early and controlled the game well so we were really happy with her for such a young girl to perform on a big stage like that," Christie said of the 20-year-old three-gamer.
"Obviously Ruahei is our leader really calm and composed and offers a real X-factor to our game."
England and USA kick off the WXV 1 tournament on Sunday, followed by Canada and France, and then New Zealand and Ireland close out the round.