In many ways, this third pool match of the World Rugby Junior Championship against the young Cherry Blossoms at the Aia Arena in Kutaisi was Scotland\u2019s hardest despite the Scots having a massive advantage up front in terms of height and weight. Japan countered that by playing with pace and a precision in their passing that proved lethal in open play.<\/p>\n
There was little denying that Scotland found it tough against Japan especially when their opponents got within two point in the final quarter and then threatened to overtake the men in blue with adventurous running. But, to their credit, Scotland resisted well and found enough within themselves to score further tries and keep their opponents at bay.<\/p>\n
In the end it was a creditable victory for Scotland albeit achieved with a performance that lacked the sparkle of their two earlier pool matches, reflecting perhaps cumulative fatigue among many of the front-line players after three hard contests in the space of just 10 days. It was also perhaps an acknowledgement of how difficult it can be playing against a side that cultivates the art of unstructured rugby.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the game, head coach Pringle suggested that his side had not been at their best. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the most accurate performance by us,\u201d he conceded. \u201cWe started well. I thought we let them into the game just through our errors and our ill-discipline. But that being said, we\u2019d probably lose a game like that [in the past]. It was 50-50 [in the final quarter], and there\u2019s some big momentum swings, so I suppose that\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to focus on going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to improve our discipline, but there\u2019s a lot of character there, and for the guys, I think it has pulled up their confidence to know they can get a win like that when they know they are not at their best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the the three pool matches and looking ahead to playing in the knock-out group of 5th-8th ranked countries, Pringle said: \u201cI thought the boys did really well to get that bonus point against New Zealand because, ultimately, that was the difference, and none of the other two teams could manage to do that. So, I feel we fully deserve to go through.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow\u2019s a chance for us to really try and go and get a couple big scalps. It\u2019s going to be [against] elite teams. It\u2019s a chance for us to really go and try and turn over a team, and we haven\u2019t managed to do that this year. We\u2019ve beaten Italy twice, we\u2019ve beaten Japan, could we go and get a victory against a really top team?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scotland wasted little time in recording first points, with a try from a five-meter scrum by Matthew Fick<\/strong>, following a massive kick downfield by Dalziel, who then contributed with the successful conversion.<\/p>\n Then, after a run out of defence by Nairn Moncrieff<\/strong>, the Scots forwards pummelled the Japan line before Dalziel threw a long pass to give Dan Kelly<\/strong> an easy try in the right corner, Dalziel again adding the extra points.<\/p>\n Another period of forceful play by the dark blue forwards generated a third try, this time finished by Ollie Blyth-Lafferty<\/strong> for a 19 point lead in as many minutes.<\/p>\n But just as though it looked like one-way traffic, Japan struck back with a try by their hooker Koshi Tsumura<\/strong> from a five meter line-out, the conversion points added by stand-off Yuki Kobayashi<\/strong>, who then kicked a penalty to take his side\u2019s points tally into double figures.<\/p>\n A maul try finished by skipper Joe Roberts<\/strong>, converted from wide out by Dalziel, gave Scotland the bonus point which all but confirmed that they would finish second in their pool, only for Japan to reply in kind with an unconverted try for Sota Miura.<\/strong><\/p>\n In a dramatic ending to the first hal,f Blyth-Lafferty was carded for an off-the-ball head clash and it seemed that Japan would profit from their one man advantage, but a try-saving tackle from Dalziel prevented what seemed a certain score, leaving the Scots with a 26-15 lead at the break.<\/p>\n Scotland, having made changes in the opening minutes of the second half were first to score in the second half with a close-range try from replacement Jamie Stewart,<\/strong> but Japan who had looked the livelier in the second period grabbed an opportunist try when replacement Shinnosuke Uchida<\/strong> bolted down an unguarded blindside to touch down under the posts, leaving Kobayashi with a simple conversion that reduced the Scots\u2019 lead to nine points.<\/p>\n A knock-on by replacement hooker Jamie McAughtrie<\/strong> in the act of crossing the line denied Scotland a try, than at the other end a run out of defence and clever support produced a sensational try for Japan by wing Isa Fukada,<\/strong> Kobayashi\u2019s conversion taking his side within two points of the Scotland tally, triggering a mental alarm bell.<\/p>\n Scotland, who at times had looked a bit jaded in the second half suddenly found the energy to gain a foothold in the Japan 22 and replacement Alex Bryden<\/strong> took a pass from Asa Stewart-Harris then\u00a0 used his strength to score a crucial try.<\/p>\n Kobayashi, however, again ate into the Scotland lead with a penalty to make the score 36-32. But the threat of defeat at the death for the Scots was averted with a timely interception try and conversion by Dalziel to give the men in blue the victory they sought and the runners-up spot in Pool B.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Teams \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n Scotland:<\/strong> R McHaffie; D Kelly, C Waugh (A Bryden 40), H Kesterton, N Moncrieff (E Craven 60); J Dalziel, M Fick (A Stewart-Harris 48); O McKenna (J Stewart 48 (J Roberts 79)), J Roberts (J McAughtrie 51), O Blyth-Lafferty (O Finlayson-Russell 48), C Lindsay (F Mather 52), D Halkon, S Byrd, J Utterson (J Rennie 42, Blyth-Lafferty 70), H Preston.<\/p>\n Japan:<\/strong> R Koga; G Sakata (S Uchida 54), R Iwakura, Y Morioka (T Niwa 66), I Fukada; Y Kobayashi, K Sato (K Suda 74); K Aruga (S Ri 34), K Tsumura (S Miura 34), K Kawagoe (K Motoyama 49), M Yanase, T Yamazaki (M Hyaku 59), R Fujikubo, K Sin, Akhiro Tsubone (K Fukada 41)<\/p>\n Referee:<\/strong> David Vosalevu (Fiji)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Scorers \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n Scotland:<\/strong> Tries: Fick, Kelly, Blyth-Lafferty, Roberts, Stewart, Bryden, Dalziel; Cons:Dalziel 4.<\/p>\n Japan:<\/strong> Tries: Tsumura, Miura, Uchida, Fukada Cons Kobayashi 3; Pens: Kobayashi 2.<\/p>\n Scoring Sequence (Scotland first):<\/strong> 5-0; 7-0; 12-0; 14-0; 19-0; 19-5; 19-7; 19-10; 24-10; 26-10; 26-15 (h-t) 31-15; 31-20; 31-22; 31-27; 31-29; 36-29; 36-32; 41-32; 43-32.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In many ways, this third pool match of the World Rugby Junior Championship against the young Cherry Blossoms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1075406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,85185,4884,712,74756,16,15],"class_list":["post-1075405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-britain","tag-divi","tag-great-britain","tag-scotland","tag-scotland-under-20s","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1075406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}