[0762]

FT 28-21, Japan the eventual deserved winners and this match turned out to be a great match to watch with a lotta credit given to all the players who real "gave their all" to qualify!! Call it the proverbial "game of two halfs" and Scotland just didn't "show up" in the 1st half after taking the lead, 0-7 after 7 mins. IMO Gregor Townsend definitely started with the wrong 15 line up and effectively changed to an Edinburgh-Glasgow Warriors team that "scrapped" for control of the game and Japan pushed back to try and defend the 7 pts advantage at the end and succeeding albeit alarmed by the turnaround. Are Scotland a worse team than Japan? I don't think so and today the difference was the accuracy of passing and pace that Japan exuded during their "peak" moments. Scotland unfortunately "laboured" in this area, esp in the 2nd half, and that was the difference where they could've won this match "at the death". Also remember that Japan had "home advantage" in front of 70k noisy fans!! IMO we need a couple of "mongrels" in the forward areas, players who will really "mix it up" as it was clear that this kinda tactic definitely affected Japan and I'm sure the S African coach will be taking note of that fact before their quarter-final confrontation in what will be a testy match v decent Japanese opponents.