DAVID SOLE

SCOTLAND completed the men and women’s “double” over Japan yesterday when the men’s team defeated the Cherry Blossoms at Murrayfield, following on from the women’s victory on the back pitch a week ago.

The men were made to work considerably harder, however, and going into the closing stages of the encounter, the final result was far from obvious.

The victory was sealed when Finn Russell knocked over a penalty to give the Scots a nine-point cushion over the Japanese, but the decision appeared to come after a bit of an on field argument with his captain.

It looked as though Russell wanted to kick to the corner for a driving lineout, but Stuart Hogg prevailed and directed his fly-half to knock over the penalty, which Russell dutifully did.

The captain had already become Scotland’s leading try scorer of all-time when he finished a good move in the first half.

It took Hogg 88 matches to break the record, set by Ian Smith and matched by Tony Stanger, both who managed it in far fewer games. But the skipper deserved the accolade as he has been one of Scotland’s most-talented players of recent generations.

He will be less happy with his side’s final performance however – not least because Ireland demonstrated how dominant they could be over Japan

At times, it needed the Scottish tight five to take control

and backed it up with a victory over the All Blacks.

While Scotland outscored Japan by four tries to one, they could not dictate the game in the way that they would have wanted to.

Although Scotland’s defence was, for the most part, pretty secure, it lacked the aggressive and intimidating line speed of other defences – even that of their opponents.

The forwards failed to control the breakdown and the Scots conceded far too many penalties in this facet of play – penalties which ultimately led to a yellow card for persistently offending.

Nor did Scotland’s attack look as threatening as it might have done.

When play broke up Japan seemed to thrive, while Scotland looked a bit lost.

They needed big ball carriers to get in behind the Japanese defenders and break up their defensive structure.

Hamish Watson, so often at the heart of all things good for Scotland with ball in hand, was almost anonymous.

At times, it needed the Scottish tight five to take control of things and get the Japanese on the back foot, rather than allowing them to dictate at the breakdown and set the pace of the game, which we all knew would be fast.

If you had asked Gregor Townsend if he would take three wins out of four at the start of the autumn campaign, he would probably have answered in the affirmative.

It was another win and better to reflect on the outcome, rather than the game itself.