And here’s a match report from Andy Bull in Shizuoka. That’s all from me. Bye!
That’s the easy part done, the hard bit is still to come. Scotland beat Russia 61-0, their biggest win in 15 years, and earned the bonus point they needed just five minutes into the second half. That means that they now have 10 points in the pool, which puts them one behind Ireland, and four behind Japan, who they need to beat in Yokohama on Sunday. It’ll have to be a handsome victory, too, because if Japan pick up a bonus point for losing by seven points or less, Scotland will need one too, for scoring four tries or more. Assuming that is, they get to play at all.
Super Typhoon Hagibis is forecast to hit the Tokyo area this weekend. World Rugby have not announced their contingency plans yet and it is not clear whether, when, or where the match will go ahead. The Russians will be gone by then. They looked utterly spent, and turned in their worst game yet.
Much more here:
The rugby isn’t over for the day quite yet: Barry Glendenning is on the Wales v Fiji beat here:
All the vital pool tables and results and stuff have been lovingly collated for you here:
Russia’s captain, Vasily Artemyev, has been presented with a brand new No15 shirt while his team-mates gather around applauding. He probably doesn’t need any more No15 shirts, but it’s the thought that counts.
Gregor Townsend has a chat:
They played some excellent rugby. That first 10-15 minutes of the game was very competitive. Russia were here to play, they moved the ball wide, we know how physical they are, they challenge well, the breakdowns, so we had to put a really resilient performance together and take the gaps when they started to appear. It was an excellent performance and shows the depth that we have. I thought Adam Hastings brought a really good balance to his game. Some excellent kicking in the first half put pressure on the Russians, so they had to play from deep, and then his running game and link play was excellent. Still a few areas to improve, but both him and George Horne combined very well.
We’ll see what happens on Saturday now with the Samoa-Ireland game, because that is a factor if Ireland don’t get maximum points and it could be a three-way tie. But we know we have to win and we have to win by seven clear points if we’re going to get into the last eight, and that’ll be a big challenge because Japan are a very good team and have had a pretty good rest going into this game.
So Scotland have won their last two games by an aggregate score of 95-0, and that’s despite having two tries ruled out here for slightly forward passes (though ITV are currently arguing that George Horne’s fourth try should have stood). There was some excellent play here, with Darcy Graham’s fantastic run for the all-important fourth try the highlight.
John Barclay, Scotland’s captain, has a chat:
We enjoyed that one. To be honest we were a little bit nervous coming into the game because of what we’d seen Russia do to other teams in the tournament. So we prepared really well. I was proud of the boys, really professional, stuck to how we wanted to play the game and it was a good result. The Japan game wasn’t on our minds at all, to be honest. I think we’d have been doing a disservice to Russia if we’d done that. I spoke to the boys in the week, if we have one eye on Japan it’s easy to take your eye off this game. Certainly the guys who were playing were very focused on this game.
Final score: Scotland 61-0 Russia!
81 mins: Time for one more try! Adam Hastings touches down! But again the final pass, this time from Tommy Seymour, went forwards and it’s chalked off! The game ends with Hastings’ head in his hands as the hat-trick is ripped from his grasp.
Updated
Converted! Scotland 61-0 Russia!
79 mins: Again excellent from Adam Hastings.
TRY! Scotland 59-0 Russia!
78 mins: Good work from Duncan Taylor on the left helps Scotland surge into Russian space, and when the ball is worked to the right Stuart McInally manages to sprint to the line before Dmitrii Gerasimov can bring him down!
Updated
TRY! And converted! Scotland 54-0 Russia!
76 mins: A try for the captain, John Barclay! He runs the final 30m against nonexistent opposition. The final defender, German Davydov, just stands still and ushers him past. Hopeless from Russia, who allow Barclay to touch down between the posts and give Hastings an easy conversion.
Updated
74 mins: Iurii Kushnarev rampages down the left for a while, signs of life and ambition still for Russia. But once he’s tackled, they lose the ball in short order.
72 mins: There has been a discernible loss of intensity in the last few minutes. Russia concede a penalty for a no-arms tackle on Hastings. They could probably have banked the points but Scotland kick to touch, in search of another try.
69 mins: Russia lose another line-out. Their World Cup is not so much ending as unravelling.
No try! Scotland 47-0 Russia
65 mins: It’s chalked off. That was a poor mistake from Bradbury, who fluffed a completely straightforward pass. Not that it matters much at this stage.
TRY!?! Scotland 52-0 Russia!?
64 mins: Russia are once again sliced open by a surging Scot. This time it’s WP Nel, who does his best impression of a sprinter for a while before offloading. The ball is worked left where Bradbury feeds Horne for another. It looked like the final pass went forwards, but will it be checked?
Updated
60 mins: At the seventh attempt, Hastings finally misses a conversion.
TRY! Scotland 47-0 Russia! And a hat-trick for George Horne!
59 mins: Ramil Gaisin kicks clear, but within moments Russia are falling apart again! Pete Horne starts the rampage, passing inside to Henry Pyrgos, and he draws the final defender before feeding Horne to administer the coup de grace!
Updated
Converted! Scotland 42-0 Russia!
57 mins: That was an extremely difficult conversion made to look completely straightforward by a player brimming with confidence. Adam Hastings has had an immaculate evening.
TRY! Scotland 40-0 Russia!
55 mins: Two kicks lead to a sixth try. Duncan Taylor with the first, which travels 40m or so and rolls around a bit before being kicked away by Russia and into touch. Scotland take it quickly and Kinghorn prods through another kick which rolls conveniently down the right flank without ever quite making it into touch, and Tommy Seymour sprints onto it to touch down!
Updated
Converted! Scotland 35-0 Russia!
52 mins: Turns out Russia’s defence is extremely flimsy. Scotland have scored some far too straightforward tries today, and that was another.
TRY! Scotland 33-0 Russia!
51 mins: A fifth try! And a first from a forward, as Scotland drive forwards before George Turner spins out of the maul with the ball in his hands and sprints to the line!
Updated
49 mins: Scotland threaten again, only for Kinghorn to fluff the final offload.
48 mins: Graham is immediately removed from the fray, to bask in the glory of that fabulous run.
Converted! Scotland 28-0 Russia!
46 mins: A successful conversion from Hastings, wide on the left. It had been an inauspicious start to the second half, until Graham sent it blooming into brilliant life.
TRY! Scotland 26-0 Russia!
45 mins: It’s the try they wanted! And what a run from Darcy Graham! He catches a kick deep inside his own half, skips through any number of tiny slivers of space and finally presents George Horne with the final 10 metres of empty grass!
Updated
41 mins: Not a great start: Kinghorn’s kick doesn’t travel the requisite 10 metres, so Russia have a scrum on the centre spot.
Updated
41 mins: And they’re off!
The players are back out, and Blair Kinghorn preparing to get the game restarted.
If Scotland haven’t been perfect, they have at least made no significant missteps, and capitalised ruthlessly on their opponents’. Russia’s best chance was always to be strong defensively, maintaining that even if the Scots scored a single try, and capitalise on Scottish desperation when their four-try target started to look out of reach. Instead they conceded one try and then crumbled.
Half time: Scotland 21-0 Russia
41 mins: George Horne knocks on as he’s brought down a yard from the line, and the opportunity is lost. Scotland go into the break with three tries in the bank and one still to get.
Updated
40 mins: The gong sounds, with Scotland five yards from the line.
39 mins: Scotland threaten again as the half nears its conclusion. They are just inside Russia’s 20-yard line, and pushing hard.
37 mins: Hastings tries another chip-and-run. This time he collects it hard on the left flank, and his attempt to kick it onwards for Graham to run on to only sends it spinning into touch. Here’s a local weather update:
#TyphoonHagibis update: still a huge violent typhoon tracking toward Japan. Current forecasts (subject to change) take the centre right through Tokyo on Sat as a 'very strong' typhoon. Flooding rain & damaging winds likely.#ENGvFRA #RWC19 and #F1 quali under threat. pic.twitter.com/z6M8ghdVro
— Simon King (@SimonOKing) October 9, 2019
35 mins: A slightly scrappy phase of play this. “Nice to see the changing rooms in the stadium,” says Rory Davies. “When living nearby, we rented the stadium to play a game against a local Brazilian team (a reenactment of the 2002 world cup game). When we had the meeting with the guy in charge, he asked which changing rooms we wanted to use. The regular, or the one that Beckham used. As it was a municipally owned stadium, everything was ridiculously cheap. I think we paid 200 yen (just over a pound) to rent the managers’ perspex “dugouts” and another 200 yen for corner flags and nets. And yes, we chose the Beckham changing rooms.” So is the one Russia used a Beckham changing room or a regular one? Scotland’s looks identical, for wht it’s worth.
32 mins: Russia have also managed to lose a couple of their lineouts already. Stanislav Selskii goes long with one but none of his team-mates know about it, the ball bounces into Scottish hands and they are threatening again.
31 mins: Fraser Brown comes off, with Magnus Bradbury coming on.
28 mins: Here are the last two tries (you might not be able to see them if you’re outside the UK, for which I apologise). The first is bad from Russia, the second worse.
Artemyev won't want to see this one again
— ITV Rugby (@ITVRugby) October 9, 2019
Two Scotland tries. Two for Adam Hastings. Dreamland!#ITVRugby #RWC2019 pic.twitter.com/5r6ycVcnFi
Russia are unravelling!
— ITV Rugby (@ITVRugby) October 9, 2019
Perov's pass across his own try line is read expertly by Horne who makes it three tries in 22 minutes#RWC2019 #ITVRugby pic.twitter.com/V1FRT5WbV6
25 mins: Incredible scenes. Having looked robust for nearly 20 minutes Russia have just fallen apart, conceding two completely unnecessary tries to leave Scotland just one away from the treasured bonus, with nearly an hour to find it!
And again! And converted! Scotland 21-0 Russia!
22 mins: An absolute horrorshow! From a Russia line-out on their five-yard line Dmitriy Perov collects the ball and passes to his left. George Horne anticipates, intercepts and touches down before any Russian can react!
Updated
TRY! And converted! Scotland 14-0 Russia!
19 mins: Another one! And it’s a horrendous mistake from Vasily Artemyev! Hastings chips through optimistically and finds himself in a race for the ball against Tagir Gadzhiev. He gets there first and kicks it forwards again, but it’s overhit and it looks certain that Artemyev will get there first and save the day for Russia. Somehow, though, he dives past the ball without touching it, and Hastings touches down!
Updated
17 mins: Fine work from Hastings, though that was depressingly easy from a Russian perspective. Scotland have only once had the ball within 10 yards of the line, and they managed to convert it into a try in short order.
TRY! And converted! Scotland 7-0 Russia!
14 mins: And it leads to the first try! The ball is worked to Adam Hastings, and his dummy throws three Russian players and allows him to skip past the wrongfooted Dmitriy Perov’s feeble final challenge and to the line!
Updated
13 mins: Scotland manage to convert a Russia scrum into one of their own, deep in Russian territory, right in front of the posts.
9 mins: There was hardly any kicking done by either team in the first five minutes, but hardly anything else in the last few.
7 mins: Darcy Graham runs down the left wing but the ball is pushed out of his grasp as the tackle comes in, bounces forwards and Russia take it.
Updated
4 mins: For all Russia’s possession they were only moving backwards, and eventually they kick and Scotland grab it. Now it’s blue shirts pushing.
3 mins: A strong start from Russia, who have kept hold of the ball through 14 phases so far.
2 min: One change to the published team sheets: the referee, Mathieu Raynal of France, is unwell so England’s Wayne Barnes, who was due to assist, has replaced him.
1 min: They’re off! Russia get the game started.
Right then. Preamble complete. Time for action.
The anthems are sung. The local kid standing with Gordon Reid in mascot’s uniform does a game job of singing along with Flower of Scotland.
The teams are on their way out! Behind them, the fans in the posh seats clap half-interestedly, but on TV it certainly sounds like there’s a lot of noise in the stadium.
TV cameras have just brought us the latest scenes from inside the dressing rooms. I can tell you they don’t look like this any more. Not long ago, however, they were probably the tidiest dressing rooms I have ever seen.
Gregor Townsend has a chat:
Since the draw was made we’ve always had an eye on what selection we were going to make for this game, and players have known that their opportunity would come if they haven’t been involved in the first two games. The majority of this team played against Georgia a few weeks ago and played really well. We’ve got similar opposition tonight and we’re looking for a similar performance.
It’s definitely win or bust. A bonus point would help, make our job less difficult than it already is on Sunday, and I believe with this squad we can score four tries. But it might take a long while to break Russia down. We’ve just got to be relentless with our effort but also be patient with how we play.
Due to nobody telling me, I can’t tell you who won the toss. I can tell you that it has happened.
The early game has finished, with Argentina winning 47-17 in what was their fourth and final game of the pool stage. They become the second team to complete their four pool fixtures and the first to end their World Cup campaign.
Updated
Here’s some pre-match reading, courtesy of Andy Bull in Japan:
Argentina are currently romping to victory against the USA, with a little over 10 minutes to play. Lee Calvert has the latest:
Hello world!
A few days ago there was talk that this game might have to be abandoned because of Typhoon Hagibis, though Gordon Reid insisted the Scots would happily play through it – “We’re from Scotland. Rain. Hail. It doesn’t matter. We’ve coped with a lot more.” Today, though, the forecast is for sunny skies and no more than a gentle breeze. But will Scotland be able to weather their own storm and emerge from an unexpectedly tempestuous Pool A into the sunlight uplands of the knock-out stages? To do so they need maximum points from their next two matches, here and against the hosts in Yokohama on Sunday. They go into this game with a massively changed team – only Darcy Graham remains from the XV that started the win over Samoa – having decided, not unreasonably, to train maximum firepower on Japan. Russia have been extremely consistent – they have conceded no fewer than 30 points in their three games thus far, and no more than 35 – and make nine changes to the team that lost to Ireland. By the looks of the latest weather forecast there will be plenty of plain sailing on the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of the Shizuoka Prefecture, but will Scotland enjoy similar conditions in the Shizuoka Stadium? Time will tell, and not much of it at that. Welcome!
Here’s Andy Bull’s match preview:
And here are today’s teams:
Scotland: 15-Blair Kinghorn, 14-Tommy Seymour, 13-Duncan Taylor, 12-Pete Horne, 11-Darcy Graham, 10-Adam Hastings, 9-George Horne, 8-Ryan Wilson, 7-Fraser Brown, 6-John Barclay (captain), 5-Ben Toolis, 4-Scott Cummings, 3-Zander Fagerson, 2-George Turner, 1-Gordon Reid.
Replacements: 16-Stuart McInally, 17-Simon Berghan, 18- Willem Nel, 19-Grant Gilchrist, 20-Magnus Bradbury, 21-Jamie Ritchie, 22-Henry Pyrgos, 23-Chris Harris.
Russia: 15-Vasily Artemyev, 14-German Davydov, 13-Vladimir Ostroushko, 12-Dmitry Gerasimov, 11-Vladislav Sozonov, 10-Ramil Gaisin, 9-Dmitry Perov, 8-Nikita Vavilin, 7-Tagir Gadzhiev, 6-Vitaly Zhivatov, 5-Evgeny Elgin, 4-Andrey Ostrikov, 3-Kirill Gotovtsev, 2-Stanislav Selskii, 1-Valery Morozov.
Replacements: 16-Sergey Chernyshev, 17-Azamat Bitiev, 18-Vladimir Podrezov, 19-Bogdan Fedotko, 20-Andrey Garbuzov, 21-Sergey Ianiushkin, 22-Anton Sychev, 23-Yury Kushnarev.
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)
Assistants: Wayne Barnes (England), Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Updated
