Rusty Scots must sharpen up

ASIAN champions Japan struck a blow for the World Cup also-rans when they staggered a rusty-looking Scotland side in a Pool B match in the tropical heat of Townsville yesterday.

But Canada found Wales too hot to handle and England top-scored for the competition so far with an 84-6 thrashing over brave but outgunned Georgia.

With 14 minutes to go the Japanese had closed the gap on the Scots to just four points at 15-11 and were on the prowl for what would have been the biggest upset in World Cup history.

But that was when the Scots pulled themselves together to run in a further three tries, inspired by man-of-the-match Chris Paterson, and left the field relieved 32-11 winners.

The late show gave them a bonus point for four tries or more leaving them level with France at the top of the pool, but with two tough games to follow against the United States and Fiji.

On this performance, they will have their work cut out to reach the quarter-finals as they have done each time since the inaugural tournament in 1987.

Skipper Bryan Redpath admitted it had been far from a vintage Scotland.

“We were definitely a little bit shaky, a lot of passes went down,” he said.

“There was a lot of lost ball on contact which just showed that we had not played in five or six weeks.”

There was no such dicing with death from the Welsh who had little difficulty in disposing of a sluggish Canadian side 41-10 in a sparsely-attended match in Melbourne.

Wales outscored the North Americans five tries to one with former Great Britain rugby league international Iestyn Harris converting the lot as well as scoring two penalties for a match haul of 16 points.

Canada fancied their chances having lost by just 32-21 when the sides met at Cardiff in November but they could not cope with Wales’ running game.

Coach Dave Clark expressed frustration with the result repeating what many others had said before that the gap was widening between the traditional powerhouses and the newcomers.

“We need to play better teams more consistently,” the Australian complained.

“We’ve got to struggle in every game we play. That’s how we will improve. There’s no point in us just playing teams who are weaker than us.”

Despite the five points, Welsh coach Steve Hansen sounded less than euphoric with his side’s third straight win after a worst-ever 10 losses in a succession earlier this year.

“From a win point of view I’d give that 10 out of 10, from a performance point of view maybe six or seven,” he said.

World Cup first-timers Georgia were surprisingly level 3-3 with England after 14 minutes of their game in rainy Perth, but that was where any hopes of a fairy-tale were abruptly quashed.

Four tries in the next 12 minutes put the game away and as expected the co-favourites to hoist aloft the William Webb Ellis Cup in Sydney on November 22 sped away from their opponents like a thorougbred from a pony.

The England win sets the scene for the most eagerly-awaited clash of the World Cup first round when they take on South Africa in Perth on Saturday.

Already Springbok coach Rudolf Straueli has fired off the first shots in what is expected to be a tense build-up to the match praising his team’s pacy performance in the opener against Uruguay, and saying he hoped to emulate the game-plan against England.

“We wanted to be positive, to pick up the tempo, and hopefully that will be possible against England,” he said.

With the first three days of action complete, the competition takes a rest for a day with four countries - Namibia, Tonga, Samoa and the United States still to make their entrance.