adminWARWICK. — Japan coach Eddie Jones has admitted to selecting the wrong mix of players for Wednesday’s match against Scotland in their second Rugby World Cup 2015 match.
Japan were hoping to pen another chapter of their fairy tale through England, against Scotland at Kingsholm Stadium in Gloucester, just four days after slaying South Africa in the biggest upset in RWC history.
The brief turnaround, however, simply did not offer Japan enough time to recover from the Springboks game as the Brave Blossoms faded midway through the second half to ultimately lose 45-10.
Jones said he needed to pick a team that could cope with both the physical and mental rigors of facing a fresh Scotland side who had done their homework on Japan — and he didn’t.
“We weren’t good enough in the circumstances,” Jones said on Thursday.
“In retrospect, I got a number of things wrong: I got selection wrong; I didn’t have the players mentally right for the game. They are all my responsibilities. I take full responsibility for the defeat and performance.
“To play top-level rugby in four days you have to be physically strong and you have to be mentally strong, and some of our players didn’t cope with that yesterday and that’s my fault, not theirs.”
Jones also said some of the players may have been thrown by the sudden boost in popularity and attention as a result of the victory over South Africa.
“Mentally we have to get it right,” he said. “The team’s experienced an entirely different environment at the World Cup. Not in the wildest dreams did we expect to get the attention we’ve been getting.
“Maybe the players have lost a little focus so it’s my job to get the focus back.
“We had some players who just didn’t back up very well from the previous game. And that’s my mistake so I have to get the selection right for the next game.”
Jones, however, was confident he could build the team to top form in time for the game against Samoa in Milton Keynes on 3 October.
He singled out captain Michael Leitch, Michael Broadhurst, Harumichi Tatekawa and Ayumu Goromaru as Japan’s standouts so far, and was counting on the others to follow.
“If you look at yesterday’s game it wasn’t a 45-point scorecard. They were the better team but we gifted them 21 points,” Jones said.
“We are the sort of side that plays high-risk rugby so we have to accept that from time to time.
“We’ll use these 10 days to have a mini pre-season and get ready to play Samoa first, then the USA. But it’ll be a different style for us, which I’m not going to share with you so don’t bother asking.
“Everyone’s disappointed about the result but part of the World Cup is having the ability to move on to the next game.
At the start of the tournament, if we knew if we had one win and a loss after two games we’d be pretty happy.
“The reality is we’re in a perfect situation to achieve what we came here to achieve — and that’s to make the quarter-finals.” — Rugby World Cup.
Online Reporter