Rugby World Cup: Typhoon takes a turn for the worse

● Latest weather forecast suggests Tokyo and Yokohama could bear brunt of storm

Scotland assistant coach Matt Taylor said he was not aware of any contact from World Rugby to discuss possible contingency plans after latest forecasting suggested Super Typhoon Hagibis, which is bound for Japan this weekend, could now threaten the Yokohama area, where the Scots are due to face the hosts in a potential World Cup quarter-final decider on Sunday.

It had been initially thought that the southern part of Japan would be the worst hit by what is now a Category 5 (the highest) storm, the biggest of typhoon season, with Hagibis being described as the most violent and powerful storm in the world this year, even more so than Hurricane Dorian which devastated Barbados and parts of the Caribbean last month.

The main concern initially surround the Ireland v Samoa match in Fukuoka on Saturday, with Irish assistant coach Andy Farrell revealing that World Rugby, the game’s Dublin-based governing body, had been in touch to say contingency plans were in place, believed to include potentially moving the game to the city of Oita.

But weather predictions in Japan have since altered to suggest that the brunt of the typhoon could now affect central and northern Japan on Saturday and Sunday, with the Tokyo-yokohama area believed to be under threat. Scotland and Japan are scheduled to meet in the International Stadium in Yokohama on Sunday. Despite the increased threat, defence coach Taylor, pictured, said he wasn’t aware of any contact from World Rugby. “Not that I know of, I don’t think so,” he said, speaking at Shizuoka Ecopa Stadium, ahead of Scotland’s match against Russia today.

“Usually the management will update us on that but I can’t be 100 per cent sure. We haven’t talked about it as a coaching group and I think that if we had [heard something] we would have, which is not to say it won’t occur down the track.”

Tournament rules state that if a pool match cannot be completed on the scheduled day it will be deemed a 0-0 draw with

two points to each side, which would be no use to Scotland if Ireland complete their match the day before and beat Samoa. Venue changes, which would be sure to be a major headache considering the Japan-scotland game is a 70,000 sell-out, are factored in. Come the knockout stage, reserve days have been set aside for postponements.

World Rugby released a statement saying it was “monitoring” the situation, had “a robust contingency programme in place in the event adverse weather looks likely to impact fixtures” and would continue to issue updates.

The high winds and heavy rain expected could also impact the England-france match which is due to take place in the same stadium in Yokohama on Saturday.

Hagibis is the 19th of Japan’s 2019 typhoon season.

The worst previous storm this year was Typhoon Faxai, which tore through Tokyo a couple of weeks before the start of the tournament.

Three people were killed and 147 injured, more than 390,000 people evacuated, 934,000 households left without powerandmassdisruption to train services.

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