Japan gave Scotland a scare

Mukai said his players had focused on defence prior to the game and the work had cleary paid off.

"The team performed really well in terms of defence," he said. "But a few lapses cost us.

"After studying how to play Scotland we were very careful about counter-attack.

Redpath blasts Scots

"Although we lost today, we will turn that into motivation to beat France next week."

Inside centre Yukio Motoki disagreed with his coach's view, however, believing the shift from a defensive mindset to an attacking approach had come too early.

"I am not satisfied with the result," said Motoki, a legendary figure in Japanese rugby with 64 Test caps.

"We didn't come here to play a good game against Scotland but to beat them.

"In that sense, as for today's match, I think we would have been better to play a more defensive game, although we played our running game very well."