Gray steeling himself for battle with Japan’s own ‘Iron Man’
Richie GRAY will have to steel himself in the first Test with Japan tomorrow when he comes face-to-face with ‘The iron Man’.
At the age of 38, hitoshi Ono is the gnarled campaigner of the Japan side and is well nicknamed given his robust and physical style of play.
Who wins the outcome of their battle will go a long way to deciding the outcome of the match.
‘Ono has been one of their main lineout leaders and is an important player for them,’ Gray told Sportsmail. ‘i have watched a few clips of him and he really knows his stuff.
‘he has been around the team for a while and is a superb player. he will be a tough opponent as he has been at the top of international rugby for a long time.
‘We will need to do something up front to beat them and, if we nick a few lineouts against them, it would certainly help us. Ono has played in a couple of World cups and is still playing superbly well.’
The second-row partnership Gray has forged with his brother Jonny has become a vital part of Scotland’s play and having them together was among cotter’s main priorities for the Japan match.
‘Jonny will be calling the lineouts, he is boss and we know we have to perform well at the set-piece as we are expecting them to be well drilled at the lineout and to play a high-tempo game against us,’ said Gray.
Vern cotter has made five changes to the starting team that lost against ireland in the Six Nations in March and has handed a first start to edinburgh winger Damien hoyland.
hooker Ross Ford has been denied the chance of his 100th cap after a calf injury ruled him out, with Stuart Mcinally replacing him in the front row.
hoyland is in for Tim Visser, Matt Scott replaces Alex Dunbar in the centre and Ruaridh Jackson comes in for stand-off Finn Russell.
Jonny Gray takes over from Tim Swinson in the second row in the only tactical change.
‘We picked a strong squad to travel to Japan, 23 of which will get the chance to run out this Saturday in a Test match against a Japanese team on a revenge mission following our win in the Rugby World cup,’ said cotter.
‘They’ll have rightly taken a lot of confidence from their recent win over canada last weekend, showing great resilience to finish the game with 14 men and still win.
‘They’ll be looking to continue their progress.’