SURPRISED by the Japan win over South Africa? Well if you are a Scotland player, maybe not quite as surprised as the rest of the world. They have been studying the Brave Blossoms all summer and knew they had a special performance in them sometime.

So while nobody could claim the Mystic Meg qualities that would have allowed them to spot the result coming, nobody was particularly surprised by what they saw in the Japanese performance. After doing their homework, they knew what South Africa should have been expecting and saw pretty much what they anticipated.

"We knew just how good Japan were going to be, we have been watching a lot of their stuff," was the reaction from Ryan Wilson, the flanker as the Scotland team took a rest day before finishing their preparations for the match against the same Japan side in two days

“We’ve studied footage of the games they’ve played over the last year or so. We already knew they were a well drilled outfit. As much as it was a shock to everyone, we knew they are a good team. It was South Africa — you just expect them to come our with all guns blazing but they didn’t.

“We have watched Japan closely and gone through everything. Their lineout went well, their scrum went well. They only made three handling errors in the whole game They also limited their penalties and they played a good all-round game. They managed to keep the pressure on South Africa and they shocked them."

He did not think the match or its result changes anything about the Scotland game. "There is no more or less pressure on us," Wilson said. “We are still approaching the game as it being the biggest one for us. It was always going to be about taking things one step at a time so this is the biggest game for us at the moment. We will go into this game knowing that Japan are a tough team to break down."

Nor does the battering the Japan players took and the need to try to raise their game again so quickly particularly play into Scotland's hands, he claimed. "They will have been sore on Sunday morning, I can guarantee that, but they now have a game under their belt and now have a win against South Africa. A win like that gives you a level of confidence which is unbelievable," Wilson pointed out.

“They do have the challenge of coming down from the euphoria. I saw Dents [Davi Denton, the No8] put a tweet out about him hoping the Japan squad go out and have a few beers. That gave me a laugh but I’m sure they won’t be doing that. They will be doing everything they can in the same way as we will to get ready for this game on Wednesday," he added.