Gregor Townsend has called on World Cup organisers to do everything they can to ensure Scotland’s win-or-bust clash with Japan goes ahead on Sunday – even if it means playing the crucial showdown behind closed doors.
World Rugby have been forced to call off two games on Saturday – including England’s meeting with France – as super Typhoon Hagibis prepares to wreak havoc across Japan’s eastern coast.
But they have delayed making a decision on scrapping the Scots’ final Pool A match with the hosts at Yokohama’s International Stadium until the morning of the game in the hope that the worst of the storm will have passed by the 7.45pm (11.45am BST) kick-off time.
Scotland need to beat the Brave Blossoms to progress but cancelling the game would see the match recorded as a draw and spell the end of Scotland’s campaign.
Such a move is certain to spark a huge backlash, especially as World Rugby had previously insisted they had contingency measures in place for typhoon season.
The Scottish Rugby Union have already insisted it “fully expects” plans will be made to ensure the game goes ahead, with Murrayfield sources expressing concern over the competition’s sporting integrity if it were called off.
What is a super typhoon? In a word, intense. Hagibis earned super status – the most severe category – after winds passed the 150mph threshold, peaking at 180mph. It is far larger than Typhoon Faxai which – on the day of England’s arrival for the World Cup – brought Tokyo to a standstill, killing three people and leaving a million homes without power. Hagibis is weakening, but its power remains destructive.
How did it grow so fierce? US Navy meteorologist Robert Speta told the Japan Times the storm had gone through an ‘explosive intensification in a matter of hours’, adding: ‘In fact it was an historic amount of intensification in such a short time. This only happens when all the right ingredients are in place. Like if you had a fire and instead of throwing gasoline on it to make it bigger you also grabbed some lighter fluid, a bit of oil and a couple of aerosol cans for good measure.’
What are those ingredients? Warm sea temperature, high humidity, Coriolis force, low wind shear and atmospheric instability.
Which games are affected? Besides the Pool C decider in Yokohama on Saturday, Scotland’s match with Japan at the same venue 24 hours later. Ireland’s Pool A game against Samoa on Saturday and Wales’s Pool D match with Uruguay on Sunday are on the other side of Japan, so likely out of the storm’s main path. But the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka could be affected.
But having also called off New Zealand’s fixture with Italy – effectively knocking the Azzurri out of the competition – it appears World Rugby are not willing to budge on their rules that state pool matches cannot be rescheduled to a later date.
However, Townsend believes there are other ways to ensure the Japan game goes ahead. The Scotland head coach, speaking at a hastily-arranged press conference at the team hotel in Hamamatsu, said: “We believe the game hasn’t been cancelled because the weather forecast is much improved for Sunday.
“It looks like the game will be played and that’s what we have to keep faith with. [World Rugby] have made the call with a lot of certainty and a lot of confidence that the game will go ahead on Sunday night.
“I’d hope that everyone who is involved in the tournament would want the game to be played and that they will do all they can to ensure that it is. We have to have faith in the organisers that the game will be played even if it’s behind closed doors or at a different venue.”
He added: “There are lots of different venues that might not be affected by the weather. There are training venues. We trained at NTT. Japan trained at Prince Chichibu, which has previously hosted international games.
“What do we need? We need officials, we need players. The way I read the rules was that you can’t change days but you could change venues and contingencies would be in place.
“I’ve since been told there is force majeure [measures in the rules] and things can change because of exceptional circumstances. If that means Monday because it takes a day for things to be put back in order then who knows. But right now I think they’re planning on it going ahead on Sunday.”
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Team guides
Pool A: Ireland, Japan, Russia, Samoa, Scotland
Pool B: Canada, Italy, Namibia, New Zealand, South Africa
Pool C: Argentina, England, France, Tonga, USA
Pool D: Australia, Fiji, Georgia, Uruguay, Wales
However, tournament director Alan Gilpin has already ruled out a change of date. Asked if Scotland’s game could be pushed back 24 hours, he told an emergency press conference in Tokyo: “We have looked again at the potential to apply some consistency to our contingency plan across all the games and we treat all the matches fairly.
“Italy are in the same position as Scotland are in. It is a huge match and we would be loving to play that game. But we won’t treat that match any differently.”
Asked if it would be a bitter blow to see Scotland dumped out on the back of a cancelled fixture, Townsend said: “It will make things very unusual for a World Cup in any sport to be decided by a game being called off on one day.
“Let’s say you’re looking out of your hotel window at 5 o’clock on Sunday afternoon and it’s sunny. It would be strange if a game couldn’t take place that day or the following day.”
