Japan and Scotland experience contrasting fortunes since Rugby World Cup showdown
Gregor Townsend’s side have improved hugely in the intervening two years while Jamie Joseph’s Japan have been starved of Test rugby.
Travel restrictions brought on by Covid have severely limited their opportunities to build on reaching the quarter-finals in 2019.
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Hide AdThey had a decent hit-out against the British and Irish Lions in Edinburgh in June but they suffered a crushing defeat 60-5 loss to Ireland in Dublin a fortnight ago.
“In the first year of Covid, the year following the World Cup, we played absolutely no rugby,” said Joseph. “Then we played a couple of games in July after very little training. It has affected our team and the domestic game as well. It is an uncontrollable so we haven’t really worried too much about it, but it does highlight that we are behind in comparison to Scotland.
“Scotland have gone from strength to strength and played some really good rugby in the Six Nations. They beat Australia and they were unlucky not to beat South Africa. They are a team that is growing and developing. But that creates a massive opportunity for us to play our footy at Murrayfield at the weekend.”
Japan have brought back captain and flanker Pieter Labuschagne and scrum-half Yutaka Nagare after they were rested for the 38-25 win over Portugal last weekend.
Centre Shogo Nakano, who scored a try on debut against Portugal, has kept his place, as has stand-off Rikiya Matsuda.
Japan (v Scotland, BT Murrayfield, Saturday, 1pm)
15 Ryohei Yamanaka
14 Kotaro Matsushima
13 Shogo Nakano
12 Ryoto Nakamura
11 Siosaia Fifita
10 Rikiya Matsuda
9 Yutaka Nagare
1 Craig Millar
2 Atsushi Sakate
3 Asaeli Ai Valu
4 Jack Cornelsen
5 James Moore
6 Michael Leitch
7 Pieter Labuschagne ©
8 Kazuki Himeno
Substitutes
16 Kosuke Horikoshi
17 Keita Inagaki
18 Shinnosuke Kakinaga
19 Ben Gunter
20 Tevita Tatafu
21 Naoto Saito
22 Yu Tamura
23 Dylan Riley
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