Scotland make winning Sevens start

SCOTLAND opened their Rugby World Cup 7s campaign with a 19-17 victory over Japan yesterday – although, as the scoreline suggests, it did not come easy.

The Scots scored early through 19 year-old Chris Dean, who powered through the tackle of his opposite number to score on his debut. Soon after, Andrew Turnbull went in for his first score of the tournament. At half-time, the Scots went in 12-0 up. Early in the second period Michael Fedo concluded the try count. The scores on either side of half-time were converted by captain Colin Gregor.

Head coach, Stephen Gemmell, said: “Overall, there is relief, but we’re disappointed by how we got the win.

“In the end, it’s a Rugby World Cup 7s win, though. We scored a good try early on, then reverted to playing as individuals, but then got our shape back and scored a couple more times.

“Ultimately, we gave Japan an opportunity and they came back into it. We need to apply our game throughout the 30 minutes we have tomorrow. We know we can play better than that.”

The Scots return to action today at 10:02am (BST) against hosts Russia, who went down to South Africa 31-0 last night.