Townsend: Scotland must learn from loss
Gregor Townsend insists Scotland can recover from their World Cup heartache - but knows they must learn from the mistakes that cost them in Japan.
The Dark Blues crashed out at the pool stage for only the second time in the competition's history after a 28-21 loss to the hosts in Yokohama.
It was a another painful conclusion to a campaign that got off to a dismal start with the 27-3 thrashing from Ireland.
The Scots recovered from that huge dent to their confidence to nil both Samoa and Russia but their defence struggled to contain a rampant Brave Blossoms attack that for 45 minutes refused to relent with their ceaseless surges.
The hosts scored four tries in that period to kill off the Scots' hopes of reaching the quarter-finals as they instead set up their own knock-out clash with South Africa in Tokyo next Sunday.
But it is now back to the drawing board for Townsend and his side after a miserable 2019.
However, the head coach - whose side finished fifth in this year's Guinness Six Nations - said: "There's a lot more in this team.
"Experiences are what make you as a group and how you react to those experiences.
"It was a unique situation we were in tonight. We always knew it was going to be a challenge playing against Japan given our short turnaround from the Russia game.
"We had the team and we had the ability at the start of that game to go on and win it by the necessary amount of points.
"That we didn't is hugely disappointing.”