Scotland v Japan, 23 September

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SCOTLAND V JAPAN
23 September 2015
KO: 14:30 BST
Kingsholm, Gloucester

Live on [tbc]

Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)
Touch judges: George Clancy (Ireland) & Marius Mitrea (Italy)
Television match official: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)

A. Head to Head

4 Played 4
4 Won 0
0 Drawn 0
0 Lost 4
221 Points 45

B. Recent Form

09 Nov 2013
Scotland 42 - 17 Japan
Murrayfield, Edinburgh

13 Nov 2004
Scotland 100 - 8 Japan
McDiarmid Park, Perth

12 Oct 2003
Scotland 32 - 11 Japan
Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville

05 Oct 1991
Scotland 47 - 9 Japan
Murrayfield, Edinburgh

C. Teams

SCOTLAND

15 Stuart Hogg
14 Tommy Seymour
13 Mark Bennett
12 Matt Scott
11 Sean Lamont
10 Finn Russell
09 Greig Laidlaw (c)

01 Ali Dickinson
02 Ross Ford
03 Willem Nel
04 Grant Gilchrist
05 Jonny Gray
06 Ryan Wilson
07 John Hardie
08 David Denton

16 Fraser Brown
17 Ryan Grant
18 Jon Welsh
19 Richie Gray
20 Joshua Strauss
21 Henry Pyrgos
22 Peter Horne
23 Sean Maitland

JAPAN

01- Keita Inagaki
02- Shota Horie
03- Hiroshi Yamashita
04- Luke Thompson
05- Justin Ives
06- Michael Leitch (captain)
07- Michael Broadhurst
08- Amanaki Mafi

09- Fumiaki Tanaka
10- Harumichi Tatekawa
11- Kenki Fukuoka
12- Yu Tamura
13- Male Sa'u
14- Kotaro Matsushima
15- Ayumu Goromaru

16- Takeshi Kizu
17- Masataka Mikami
18- Kensuke Hatakeyama
19- Shinya Makabe
20- Shoji Ito
21- Hendrik Tui
22- Atsushi Hiwasa
23- Karne Hesketh

Pot Hale wrote:What's the Scottish scrum half's problem

Slowness.

Great Scottish defence from Japanese lineout, stopped twice, told to use it, knock on from panic in scrum half as he had to. Scotland look set to clear their lines. Still 12 - 7

We need to get the ball and keep it in hand

Japan penalty from that scrum. Wow. That's a few now. Japan opt for posts this time.

Japan scrum penalty, Dickinson pinged for 'illegal drive'

Japan to kick for the posts

Can we please have another captain

Miss. Remains 12-7

sco doing absolutely zero with extra man, dreadful

Scotland make complete B@lls of their scrum and concede a penalty.

Japan elect to kick for the posts.

And it's missed. Not good.

Nice friendly jock heckling the kicker, show some respect.

Japan playing really well now (with a man down). Scotland look shell shocked.

I'm trying to figure out which team is a man down.....

Its all Japan at the moment. Pinged for a forward pass but Scottish defence is having to get through a lot of work right now and we just can't get the ball!

Promising japanese attack stopped by blatant short range forward pass. Scotland clear lines with lineout close to halfway,

We have made 0 use of that yellow card.

And the Japanese are back to 15, what an opportunity wasted that was!

Come on boys. We need to be quicker defending around the fringes

We're sooooo slow you'd think strockosch was on

You felt that Scotland could have kicked to the corner and tried to use their man advantage to try and pull away. Instead they went for the posts and invited Japan to come onto them. Surrendered the initiative.

How many kicks have Japan missed?

Good job Japan are not playing their first choice XV.

1

One GF.

Mafi chose the wrong option there, should have tried to ground it against the base of the post. Missed opportunity.

Held up over the line. Should be Japan scrum

Pot Hale wrote:I'm trying to figure out which team is a man down.....

I'm trying to figure out which team it was that's supposed to be tired.

Another japanese attack all the way to the tryline. Scotland not defending great but Japanese with great power and energy. Will they re-write the rulebook about "4 days isn't enough?"

Held up over the line but as part of a maul (ish?). Scotland scrum.

On another note I don't like it when people dive over a pile of bodies to score ... I think that should be a penalty tbh,

Sounds like Scotland are hanging on by a thread!

Japan will win this if Scotland allow them to play.

Are Japan going to fall off in energy in the second half?

RDW_Scotland wrote:Sounds like Scotland are hanging on by a thread!

Japan's pack taking Scotland to the cleaners.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Sounds like Scotland are hanging on by a thread!

Right now, yes totally.

We're winning penalties but can't get out of our own 22

George Carlin wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:Good job Japan are not playing their first choice XV.

Ah, here now Tighthead. Would be a shame to ban you in the middle of a game for your jedi knight levels of wummery, but we will if we have to. 

7 changes old chap and only a four day turnaround!

Scotland are just standing off tackles not advancing beyond the gain line in defence. Japan crossing and so Scotland FINALLY clear lines and attack on the Japan halfway.

Pot Hale wrote:Are Japan going to fall off in energy in the second half?

Jut like they did against SA?

I think they're fitter than they've been given credit for.

It looks like both teams are equally capable in attack. So effectively game plan should be ... KEEP POSSESSION

Another bad call lacey

Japan are being reffed off the park imo

Scotland are using all their experience to hang in there, Japan are awesome.

Japan give away another penalty at breakdown. Scotland lineour on 22. Try a maul and told to use it after 2 stoppages. Scotland on the line ...

FANTASTIC tackle on Seymour after a Russell not-so-wonder (just average) pass.

So it ends Scotland 12 - 7 Japan.

Japan are in it.

What a covering tackle from the Japanese 15 to put Seymour into touch when it looked like he would be over in the corner

Jeez - what a tackle on Seymour! How did he get to him?

Can we not fing use an overlap - why the long pass everytime?

Scotland should have scored there. half time phew that was a cracking half of rugby.

That was a brilliant tackle!

What a try saving tackle! That is a 7-point tackle, great stuff.

Half-time; A LOT of penalties being conceded by Japan. A lot of mistakes too. Japan have been penalised for crossing in the 22 in a promising move, forward pass in the Scottish 22 in a promising move- Scotland benefiting from indiscipline and being let off the hook by mistakes as opposed to creating much themselves.

But Scotland have been very good at putting pressure on the Japanese in defence and forcing those errors. They look limited, but this should still be a Scotland win on the balance of play. Still, they had a HUGE chance to kick to the corner with a man advantage and try and open some daylight and they turned it down! That was the worst decision of the half. As long as Japan are within a score its game on.

Guess I was wrong. Ignore all future predictions about minnows from me

I really hope Japan are given some games against tier one nations as they build towards 2019, the development and distance they have travelled since 2011 is just breath taking.

Denton looking back to his best, really making the yards. Really entertaining game so far. Great tackle from the Japan 15 at the end of the half

Massive positive is that we are winning at half time, but the message at half time has got to be keep the ball!!!!

When we have it we look like doing damage, when they have it they do too - we can't let them have another 15 minute purple patch

VinceWLB wrote:Japan are being reffed off the park imo

Lacey is an awful ref - as is Clancy. These two are our contribution to international reffing!