Courageous Blossoms must hit the ground running against Scotland, coach Eddie Jones

Eddie Jones, the Japan coach, has warned that rugby is moving in a “dangerous direction” and called on the sport’s governing body to increase “fatigue” in the game to reduce power and the number of collisions.

A day after England had kicked off the six-week showpiece by quelling a fired-up Fiji at Twickenham, there were also victories for Ireland, France and Georgia.

South African Josh Strauss should win his first cap for Scotland from the bench tomorrow just three days after qualifying for the Dark Blues through a controversial three-year residency rule. We lacked a lot of creativity and I think the ability to adapt to the conditions on the actual field definitely came up wanting.

“We had an opening ceremony in Brighton last week and they showed a video of the Japan’s [rugby] history”.

The loss to Japan, which has been described as the greatest upset in the history of the tournament, would ensure South Africa are fully focused for the game at Villa Park, said Samoa coach Stephen Betham.

South Africa, on the other hand, had the best record of any country, having lost just four of its 29 pool games. “It was just not good enough”.

“I really enjoyed our interactions and working with Eddie during the 2007 World Cup, he can add even more value here – both in terms of pushing for trophies and, importantly, in helping the continued development of our coaches and players”.

Leitch and his team-mates will have barely had time to come back down to earth following Saturday’s stunning win over mighty South Africa when they meet the Scots at Gloucester’s Kingsholm ground on Wednesday. No matter how well you are doing, there are always going to be a few slight lapses”, Wilson said.”That’s what we will be looking for when we play Japan. “It’s a humble group and certainly not one that gets ahead of itself”.

“It’s one game at a time in this tournament and there were moments where we were outstanding”.

Nor does the battering the Japan players took and the need to try to raise their game again so quickly particularly play into Scotland’s hands, he claimed.

They never established superiority over a team that had not won a World Cup game since 1991 against Zimbabwe. I tried to let the guys know during the week that they are a proper nation.