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Japan v Scotland: Rugby World Cup 2019 – live!


It’s Scotland’s biggest game in years and Gregor Townsend has decided to drop captain, Stuart McInally, to the bench, bringing Fraser Brown in at hooker. It’s a strange call, as there’s not much between the two players, albeit Brown is stronger over the ball – something the Scots will need to slow up Japan’s savagely quick ruck ball. But is Brown so good over the ball that it warrants binning the leader to the bench? I’m not so sure, and if the result doesn’t go Scotland’s way, you can bet there’ll be many a question about this decision in particular.

Scotland’s patched together back-row of Bradbury, Ritchie and Thompson could, ironically, be the best one they’ve had for a little while. They’ll need to be, because the Japanese breakaway trio are quite the handful.

It’s Japan’s biggest game ever, and they have some serious stardust in Matsushima and Fukuoka, as well as some real tough quality in the likes of Nakamura and the magnificent hooker Horie, who often operates at first receiver.

Ireland struggled as they could not get the ball back from Japan, Scotland need to find a way of disrupting the Japanese attack that Ireland simply could not find.

Japan: William Tupou; Kotaro Matsushima, Timothy Lafaele, Ryoto Nakamura, Kenki Fukuoka; Yu Tamura, Yutaka Nagare; Keita Inagaki, Shota Horie, Jiwon Koo, Luke Thompson, James Moore, Michael Leitch (captain), Pieter Labuschagne, Kazuki Himeno.

Replacements: Atsushi Sakate, Isileli Nakajima, Asaeli Ai Valu. Uwe Helu, Hendrik Tui, Fumiaki Tanaka, Rikiya Matsuda, Ryohei Yamanaka.

Scotland: Stuart Hogg; Tommy Seymour, Chris Harris, Sam Johnson, Darcy Graham; Finn Russell, Greig Laidlaw (captain); Allan Dell, Fraser Brown, Willem Nel, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Magnus Bradbury, Jamie Ritchie, Blade Thomson.

Replacements: Stuart McInally, Gordon Reid, Zander Fagerson, Scott Cummings, Ryan Wilson, George Horne, Pete Horne, Blair Kinghorn.



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