‘No margin for error against Japanese’

– Scotland will have to be “spot-on” when they take on Japan on Sunday for a place in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals, coach Gregor Townsend warned yesterday.

The Scots, with Adam Hastings shining at flyhalf, notched up a nine-try, 61-0 drubbing of winless Russia yesterday to ensure a mouth-watering showdown with the hosts in Yokohama next week.

Japan are unbeaten in their three Pool A matches, having notably claimed the shock scalp of Six Nations giants Ireland.

“All aspects of our game have to be spot-on against Japan,” Townsend said, underlining that his team had to make the best use of the ball when in possession against what he called a very welldrilled Japanese outfit.

Scotland opened their campaign with a 27-3 defeat by Ireland before rebounding to rack up an impressive 34-0 victory over Samoa.

“The Ireland game is already in the history books, it was a missed opportunity where we didn’t get our best game in place,” Townsend said.

“You move on to the next game and what the players have done since that Ireland game, I couldn’t ask any more of them.

“It’s two games now we haven’t conceded a try or even a point, which is very encouraging.”

Townsend added: “If we hadn’t got the bonus point, Sunday would have been more difficult.”

The former flyhalf rested a quintet of front-line players in Greig Laidlaw, Finn Russell, Stuart Hogg, Blade Thompson and Johnny Gray as he juggles his squad on a punishing four-day turnaround for the Japan game.

“It’s always been in our schedule,” Townsend said. “It’s a challenge, we know the opposition have had a good rest going into the game.

“It’s really important we recover well and do our best to play our best rugby on Sunday.”

Townsend said Scotland would be in close touch with World Rugby as a typhoon bears down on Japan, threatening to disrupt the weekend’s games. Scotland could be eliminated if Sunday’s game with Japan is cancelled.

“We’ll be getting updates from World Rugby over the next two days as to what contingencies are,” he said. – AFP