Gregor Townsend considers Scotland can recover from their Rugby World Cup heartache but states they need to learn from the mistakes which cost them from Japan.
Scotland crashed out at the pool stage for just the second time in World Cup background following having a 28-21 loss to the hosts in Yokohama.
It was a another painful conclusion to a campaign which got off to a dismal start with the 27-3 thrashing from Ireland.
The Scots recovered from that massive dent to their confidence to nil both Samoa and Russia but their defence struggled to contain a rampant Brave Blossoms attack which for 45 minutes refused to relent using their perpetual strikes.
The hosts scored four attempts in that period to kill off Scotlands hopes of attaining the quarter-finals as they alternatively set up their own knockout battle with South Africa in Tokyo on October 20.
It is back to the drawing board for Townsend along with his side after a gloomy 2019.
However, the head coach – whose side finished fifth in this years Six Nations – stated:Theres far more in this team.
Experiences are what make you as a team and the way you respond to those encounters.
This was a unique situation we were in tonight. We always knew it was going to be a challenge playing against Japan given our short turnaround from the Russia game.
We experienced the group and we now all had the capacity at the beginning of this game to continue and win it by the necessary amount of points.
We didnt is enormously disappointing. We need to learn from that. We dont get another turn in the World Cup for 3 years but weve got to improve as we reach next tournament thats the Six Nations in 3 months time
The build-up to the game was overshadowed by the threat of Typhoon Hagibis, together with the clash at Yokohamas International Stadium merely becoming the green light eight hours before kick-off.
However, Townsend refused to work with that as an excuse for his sides defeat.
It looked promising for Scotland if Finn Russell put them forward but Japan hit with Kenki Fukuokas dual, and dents from Kotaro Matsushima and Keita Inagaki.
Scotland refused to return without a fight but second-half scores from forward WP Nel and Zander Fagerson werent enough.
The players acted very professionally, said Townsend. We believed the game was going to go ahead. Yesterdays instruction was compromised. We knew this week will be a struggle.
We are frustrated. We examine the game from our perspective, were disappointed we did not win.
We started well and we did not observe the ball for the rest of the first half.
We conceded two soft tries and we made too many mistakes. It made it challenging to find the end result we were searching for.
The boys put in a huge shift in the second half, but we didnt do enough in that last 20 minutes to get the win.
Its a massive blow to not get to the knockout stages, we arrived here with high aspirations.
Getting out of the pool stages was that the first part of this. Weve worked incredibly hard over the past couple of months so were hugely disappointed
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