A strong Scotland XV found the Japanese select a far more difficult obstacle than they could have anticipated in labouring to an unimpressive win in the pre-tour match at Murrayfield.
In front of a decent crowd in perfect playing conditions, the Scots scored only four tries compared to the 15 they ran up in the last meeting with the Japanese in a full test international at Perth in 2004.
Despite not awarding caps for this contest this was a far more competitive and physical Japanese team than the one Scotland swept aside to the tune of 100 points six years ago, showing steel and organisation in defence and some attacking flair, deserving their late try through the outstanding open-side Youngdae Kim.
As the Scots treated the contest as almost a training exercise, refusing practically every kicking option, it allowed the Japanese to spoil and stifle the home side’s often predictable moves.
Two second-half tries from man of the match John Barclay ensured there would be no embarrassing upset, and there were good cameos from Allan Jacobsen and Max Evans as a replacement, but this was a Scottish performance to quickly forget before the team leave for the two-test tour to Argentina.WorthwhileHead coach Andy Robinson still declared the match “a worthwhile exercise” in getting mistakes and rustiness out of the system before the main squad leave for Argentina on Friday.
“We haven’t been together for a couple of months and maybe that showed a bit,” he said.
“We wanted to attack in the wider channels a little more and perhaps there was possibly a bit of that white line fever that we had against Argentina and against Italy earlier in the season, but we wanted a match of international intensity and Japan clearly brought that and gave us a lot of problems at the breakdown, which is something we maybe needed reminded about.”
The home XV were under clear instructions not to kick under any circumstances, with early running forays from their own in-goal area and plenty of creative intention to keep the ball alive.
That brought its reward within six minutes when Japan’s defence followed a dummy run inside from Simon Danielli on an attacking scrum, and the quick switch the other way found Alex Grove in space for an easy run-in with Godman converting superbly.
However, for much of the rest of the half a more structured and orthodox approach might have been more effective as the Scots were a little too frantic and suffered some embarrassment at the set-piece, where Japan pinched three key lineouts and then pilfered ball from a scrum inside their own 22.
On the half-hour mark it took a last-gasp tackle by Blair to stop wing Yuta Imamura racing clear after the Japanese worked some space on the right.
Full-back Ayumu Goromaru missed three kicks at goal and the Japanese had another decent chance when Nick de Luca missed an open field tackle on the goalkicker and only more scrambling defence kept the visitors out.ImprovementThe second half brought little immediate improvement, Godman’s dart through a gap floundering on a floated pass that allowed the Japanese defence to regroup, with Kim in particular being a nuisance at the breakdown.
However, 10 minutes into the second half the Scots finally broke through when Barclay took a direct line on to a flat Godman pass after a quick tap penalty and shrugged off three tacklers to go over the line, the stand-off adding another good conversion.
The Scots finally settled after that score, with Japanese skipper Masakazu Irie sin-binned as referee James Jones lost patience with the constant infringements, and a long Godman pass found Barclay in the clear on the wide right for his second try, that this time went unconverted.
The Scots had to withstand a period of pressure from a Japanese outfit that refused to wilt, and Al Kellock, one of a flurry of replacements from the Scots, was given a yellow card as the home team were forced to infringe in defence.
Despite being a man down, the Scottish scrum still had control and the home side worked space for Danielli to go in at the corner, although he took a heavy knock from a last-gasp tackle in the act of scoring.
The Japanese, however, came right back with a series of attacks on the home line that ended with Kim wriggling over from close range for a consolation try that went unconverted.
Attendance: 8186.