Eye on Scotland: In the marginal calls, Townsend has gone with experience. Here's why...

TOKYO — It has been decidedly low-key this week in and around the Scotland team base in the opulent Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa in the Shinagawa area of Tokyo. Not in a bad way. It just feels like after nearly three months of training camps and ever-increasing hype, there is nothing left to say or do — it is now time to get into the action. And while they might not be shouting it from the rooftops, there is definitely a deep-rooted sense of belief within the group that tomorrow’s World Cup opener against Ireland is a match they can win.

There is good reason for this optimism. The recent record between the nations might not make for pretty reading from a Scottish perspective — with Ireland having come out on top in six of the last seven meetings — but there is a feeling that the two sides have followed different trajectories since Joe Schmidt’s team defeated Gregor Townsend’s lot 13-23 at Murrayfield during the last Six Nations.