Gloucester, England: Mark Bennett scored two tries and captain Greig Laidlaw kicked 20 points as Scotland destroyed World Cup giant-killers Japan on Wednesday.
Japan’s heroics in beating South Africa 34-32 left them exhausted and, after a bright start with a brilliant Amanaki Mafi try, they could not keep up with the dark blues.
Leading 12-7 at half-time, Scotland took complete control after the break.
Two tries by Bennett and one each from flanker John Hardie, Tommy Seymour and Finn Russell on his 23rd birthday crushed the spirited Japanese. Scottish skipper Laidlaw gave a clinical display of kicking on his Gloucester home ground, packed with 14,354 people for the occasion.
“We hung in there and competed well for an hour but we just ran out of energy,” said Japan captain Michael Leitch.
Laidlaw paid tribute to the Asian champions. “They gave us a good workout for our first game and it took time for us to get into our stride,” he said. “It was tough despite the scoreline.”
The Scots did not make the same error as Spingboks skipper Jean de Villiers as Laidlaw opted to go for goal with their first penalty rather than kick for touch.
The Scottish captain slotted over for a 3-0 lead after two minutes and soon added a second.
Japan stayed true to their attacking instinct. Star full-back Ayumu Goromaru kicked right into the corner from a penalty and, from the ensuing throw in, No. 8 Mafi drove over for a brilliant try to get Japan back into the game.
Goromaru — scorer of 24 points against the Spingboks — added the conversion for 7-6, but Laidlaw added two further penalties to put Scotland up 12-7. Japan repeatedly got on the wrong side of Irish referee John Lacey and his patience ran out at persistent infringements as he flashed a yellow card in the 23rd minute at Japanese wing Kotaro Matsushima for ripping the ball from Scottish opposite number Sean Lamont after tackling him.
Penalty miss
Laidlaw missed the resulting penalty and, despite being one man down, the Japanese kept the Scots largely inside their own half.
The Japanese came bursting out of the blocks in the second half, Mafi bullocking his way deep into the Scots’ 22 before being brought to the ground — and he had to be stretchered off with a leg injury.
Goromaru kicked a penalty — the Scots having gone offside — to move the Japanese to within two of the Scots at 12-10. However, Hardie stretched the lead as, fed by Laidlaw, he went over after a rare fluent backline movement that saw Matt Scott held up just short of the line. It was Scotland’s first World Cup try since their first match of the 2011 tournament against Romania.
It was game over just after the hour mark as Seymour intercepting a Japanese pass inside the Scots 22 and he just had the legs to evade a couple of Japanese defenders to touch down, Laidlaw again converting for 31-10.
