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Scotland want World Rugby to ensure their game against Japan goes ahead

Scotland are adamant contingency plans must be put in place for their Rugby World Cup game with Japa...


Scotland want World Rugby to e...

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Scotland want World Rugby to ensure their game against Japan goes ahead


Scotland are adamant contingency plans must be put in place for their Rugby World Cup game with Japan to go ahead.

Sunday's game is in doubt due to Super Typhoon Hagibis - which has already caused England against France and New Zealand versus Italy to be called off.

If Scotland's match is not played, Japan would advance to the quarter-finals ahead of them and Scot's boss Gregor Townsend says the game needs to be played:

"We believe the game hasn't been cancelled because the weather forecast is much improved for Sunday.

"It looks like the game will be played and that's what we have to keep faith with. World Rugby have made the call with a lot of certainty and a lot of confidence that the game will go ahead on Sunday night.

"I'd hope that everyone who is involved in the tournament would want the game to be played and that they will do all they can to ensure that it is.

"We have to have faith in the organisers that the game will be played even if it's behind closed doors or at a different venue."

Townsend says they'll be 'flexible' to ensure the fixture is fulfilled:

"There are lots of different venues that might not be affected by the weather. There are training venues. We trained at NTT. Japan trained at Prince Chichibu, which has previously hosted international games.

"What do we need? We need officials, we need players. The way I read the rules was that you can't change days but you could change venues and contingencies would be in place.

"I've since been told there is force majeure (measures in the rules) and things can change because of exceptional circumstances.

"If that means Monday because it takes a day for things to be put back in order then who knows. But right now I think they're planning on it going ahead on Sunday."

But tournament director Alan Gilpin has ruled out a change in date:

We have looked again at the potential to apply some consistency to our contingency plan across all the games and we treat all the matches fairly.

"Italy are in the same position as Scotland are in. It is a huge match and we would be loving to play that game. But we won't treat that match any differently."

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