Ireland 27-3 Scotland: Same old Scots, promising big and delivering little in World Cup opener

Japan may be the most hospitable and well mannered country in the world, but there are limits to even their hospitality so one thing is certain: Jamie Joseph, the Japan coach, will have been watching the Scots dropping passes or failing to deal with high kicks and thinking: "we can take this lot".

He built his own playing career on his ultra-competitiveness, so he will have spotted the soft underbelly of too many Scots forwards and  seen an opportunity there too. In a culture where bowing is taken almost as an art form, they are not going to bow down and let the Scots roll over them.

Actually, when you think back, we should have spotted the warning signs, they were all there. The more Scotland build themselves up, the more they believe their own hype and the worse they seem to play. The hubris was there and the comeuppance was waiting to strike all week.

Then the weather decided to play it's trick. Typhoon Tapah was rolling up the other side of the country and leaving everybody guessing exactly when the fringes of that weather system would hit Yokohama and the rain would hammer down. In the end it came about half time but but Scotland played as though it been lashing down for six hours before the game started.

Remember, they were playing in a state-of-the-art stadium and after months of practicing for exactly the kind of humidity that put a sheen of sweat on the ball, they should have been able to cope.

Instead, they got bullied up front and reacted by trying to swing the ball side before they had done anything to tie down the Irish defence. No wonder there were few gaps for the  star runners to exploit.

"We couldn’t get any go forward ball, Ireland just shut us down. I couldn’t get moving, but we have to come up with ways to beat that," complained Stuart Hogg, one of those nullified match winners.

“It felt like slow ball, it’s not often you are standing still waiting on it. They have a world-class defence and a world-class defence coach in Andy Farrell so you know they can always hatch a plan to contain you."

The first half was calm and rain free, though the humidity and heat – enough to make it sweaty just sitting watching – meant all the tricks they had devised in the summer for dealing with exactly those conditions were going come into play.

Instead it looked as though the conditions came as a total surprise and they seemed to find life a little easier when the rain arrived and the familiarity torrents of water seemed to cut down on the error rate.

"We are absolutely gutted with the way it played out and the way we reacted," Hogg admitted. “You can’t just sit back and admire teams or play the way we did at times. We’ve come down on the wrong side of a bad trip.

“As good as Ireland are, we know we are better than that. All last week we spoke about not beating ourselves but the first three Ireland tries all came from our own mistakes.

“Whether it be a knock-on or a turnover – I was turned over myself – Ireland were able to get their driving maul moving and it was very difficult to stop.

“The first half especially we just did not compete and we know that’s not good enough,”

So it's off on the train to Kobe, home of the pampered Wagu beef herds where the animals are fed a special diet, get massaged every day and then led off to the slaughter.

Hopefully that is not an model for the Scots who should be arriving in town more in bull fighting mood and ready to show Samoa, who they meet next Monday, just who is boss.

"There are no grey areas, we are in must-win territory already," said Hogg. “Test match rugby is incredibly intense, probably more so when it’s at a World Cup, there is so much on the line.

"We know what we need to do now; we must win our next three games to ensure that we qualify. That is not going to be easy but that’s exactly what we must do."