Rugby World Cup storm row blows up as Scotland consider legal action

Dejected: Scotland's defeat to Ireland in September could cost them a place in the last eight
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Will Macpherson11 October 2019

It is still unclear whether Sunday’s vital Pool A clash between hosts Japan and Scotland will become the third World Cup match to fall foul of Typhoon Hagibis, which is hurtling towards Tokyo, but both sides today named their teams and declared their desperation for the match to go ahead as scheduled.

For Scotland, that meant SRU chief Mark Dodson confirming that they are exploring legal options should the game be cancelled. For Japan, it meant coach Jamie Joseph addressing a packed media conference here, pleading for greater respect for his team’s achievements and complaining about Scotland’s plans.

Hagibis is set to have passed Yokohama by Sunday evening, when the match is due to be played, but whether it can go ahead depends on the damage it leaves in its wake. There is a possibility the fixture will be played behind closed doors, but if even that is not possible, Japan will top Pool A and face South Africa in the quarter-finals. Scotland will go home, assuming Ireland get a point.

Japan have been the story of the tournament and the perfect hosts. They have won three games from three — against the same opponents, Scotland have won two from three — which explains the current situation.

“These reports have undermined the significance the match holds for Japan,” said Joseph. “We have won three Tests so far and put ourselves in the best position in the pool. It hasn’t been a fluke, it’s been a lot of hard work by a lot of people. This team has been in camp for 240 days this year alone.

“Whilst the majority of my players are professional in their clubs, we are an amateur team. What that means is that when our players are in the camp with Japan they do not get paid — or they get around 100 bucks a day. We’ve all earned the right to be considered one of the elite teams in the world. It’s important for us to wake up on Monday and understand we’re a worthy top-eight team or we aren’t.”

Joseph said the key difference between his team and Scotland were that “we’re driven and supported by the whole country” and that “my team is motivated by achieving something great, not avoiding embarrassment”.

Joseph’s players echoed his sentiments. They still hurt from the loss to Scotland four years ago, when they were thrashed four days after their historic win over South Africa in Brighton. They went out with three wins, just as they would if Scotland win on Sunday and match their bonus points. Prop Keita Inagaki said: “We lost against [Scotland] in the last tournament and we have never forgotten the feelings we had. Losing the two Test matches we had against them since was also a very hard experience.”

Scotland are being equally forthright. Captain Stuart McInally starts on the bench, with Fraser Brown coming in at hooker and Greig Laidlaw leading the side.

While Dodson described World Rugby’s rigid plans not to move the match as “absolutely unacceptable”, Conor O’Shea, the Italy coach whose team were knocked out yesterday because of the cancellation of their match with the All Blacks tomorrow, was quick to remind the world today that double standards would be at work if Japan v Scotland were rescheduled when their game was not.

Dodson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning: “World Rugby is pointing us back to the participation agreement. We’ve had legal opinion that challenges World Rugby’s interpretation.

“We don’t know that [it’s too late], we have to challenge it. But we should be talking about this from a rugby perspective. This is about the game and the rugby supporters across the world are absolutely astounded at this rigidity from World Rugby. The commonsense approach to this is to play the game 24 hours later in perfect safety, where we can make sure that the pool stages are completed and the sporting integrity of the tournament remains intact.”

Make no mistake: everyone, on both sides, is desperate for this most vital of games to go ahead.

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