Skipper Hogg breaks try record as nervy Scots edge Blossoms
Stuart Hogg became Scotland’s all-time top try-scorer when he notched his 25th Test try yesterday.
But the Scotland skipper’s overwhelming emotion will have been one of relief after his side held on for a narrow, nervy win against the Brave Blossoms.
Coach Gregor Townsend said: “It was a real Test match. It’s difficult when you’re defending for large phases to get yourself into the game.
“We always felt in control of the scoreboard, even though on the field Japan were threatening us just with the ambitious and accurate attack they brought.
“Japan are a quality side and we need our team to go through these tests and find ways to win, which we did today. We’ve been resilient.”
Despite having four tries in the bag and a decent enough lead early in the second half, Scotland never looked comfortable and began to unravel against a ferocious Japanese fightback.
And, once again, they proved to be their own worst enemies as indiscipline was rife, allowing Japan fly-half Rikiya Matsuda to keep his team in the hunt with five penalties.
Indeed, Kiwi ref Brendon Pickerill warned Hogg about the mounting penalty count as early as the 25th minute, and kept his promise to sinbin the next offender when prop Jamie Bhatti was yellow-carded just after half-time for yet another offence at the breakdown.
Townsend added: “It was quite harsh given we’d given away penalties early in the game then Japan gave a number of penalties away, and it was the first penalty of the half and not in a danger area, but we got through that period well.”
Scotland have fallen foul of the official at the breakdown in two games on the trot, and the worrying thing is they seem unable to adapt to the ref’s interpretation of the laws during the game.
It was a rum old match. Scotland started the Autumn Nations Series desperate to fling the ball wide at the first opportunity but yesterday seemed to have a phobia about the flanks.
They played a narrow, cagey game, seemingly terrified of a defeat, which would negate much of a very positive year that saw victories in Paris and London, and against Australia.
Indeed, the only time wingers Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham touched the ball in the
first 40 minutes was when they scored.
Van der Merwe opened the scoring in only the sixth minute when he used his considerable heft to force his way over from short range for his ninth try in 13 caps.
But Graham had to wait until the last minute of the half before Finn Russell spotted him loitering unmarked on the wing.
The Edinburgh man pocketed the lofted pass and scampered for the line, cutting inside and making the most of his relative lack of inches by ducking under and through a cluster of flailing tacklers to dot down.
Those scores sandwiched Hogg’s history-making try, one the skipper made himself with a great break from deep before showing another devastating burst of pace to be on hand to take Russell’s pass and race over.
The only Scottish try of a second half that was otherwise all about Japan came when, within 10 seconds of entering the fray, replacement hooker Stuart McInally had not only thrown in at an attacking lineout but finished off a strong, driving maul.
That temporarily stopped the Japanese revival, but continued strong and elusive running earned an attacking lineout of their own from which replacement No.8 Tevita Tatafu found a gaping hole in Scotland’s defence and simply charged through it.
Further Scottish indiscipline saw Matsuda’s fifth penalty bring the visitors within a converted score of the lead, and alarm bells were ringing.
That explained Hogg’s insistence that Russell – keen to boot a supremely kickable penalty into the corner in search of another try – instead go for the posts for the first time with less than two minutes to run.
Russell, who’d converted three of his team’s tries, was accurate again and the result was safe. SCOTLAND – Hogg (Capt.); Graham (Kinghorn 63), Harris, Johnson, Van der Merwe; Russell, Price (Horne 61); Bhatti (Schoeman 53), Turner (McInally 54), Z. Fagerson (Sebastian 63), Cummings (Skinner 72), Gilchrist, Ritchie (M. Fagerson 61), Watson (Schoeman 49-53)(Richardson 72), Bayliss.
JAPAN – Yamanaka (Tamura
61); Matsushima, Nakano (Riley 41), Nakamura, Fifita; Matsuda, Nagare (Saito 72); Millar (Inagaki 61), Sakate, Ai Valu (Kakinaga 61), Cornelsen, Moore, Leitch (Tatafu 61), Labuschagne (Capt.), Himeno. Unused replacements – Horikoshi, Gunter.