The Australian, who will step down at the end of the campaign, said he hopes the win in the Pool B match in Brighton, England would make his players sporting heroes in Japan.
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South Africa had even hinted it would be prepared to step in as replacement hosts, an offer nearly certainly killed off by Karne Hesketh’s injury-time match- winning try.
He qualified for Japan on residency in 2011, but in his eighth test that year, the last warm-up for the Cup in New Zealand, he tore ligaments, and had to withdraw from the Cup squad because of the second serious knee injury of his career.
Full-back Stuart Hogg has recovered from an ankle injury and is set to take his place in Scotland’s starting XV to face Japan at Kingsholm Stadium, Gloucester tomorrow.
“I also spoke to my mum and my wife about it but I don’t want to have too many distractions”.
“If they’re (Pool A teams) going to go the whole way, they’re going to have to play some big games week after week after week”, he said.
The Asian champions have become the darlings of the tournament since sucker-punching two-time former winners South Africa in Brighton on Saturday.
“It’s a game where the humble usually succeed, you know what I mean?”
But the Australia-born coach insisted the win was all thanks to a morning coffee with Leitch, the courageous Blossom’s hero on Saturday’s clash against South Africa.
“We’ll be looking to keep that as low as possible and play in the right areas of the pitch”.
The Japanese team showed great flair and discipline as they beat the Boks 34-32.
Japan are now setting their sights on proving the result was no fluke and they are 5/1 to beat Scotland on Wednesday.
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“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. (Amanaki) Mafi at 8 is a very good player as is (Hendrik) Tui and (Michael) Leitch is another unsafe player in the back row”. “Unbelievable. Hopefully, it’s changed the mindset of Japanese rugby and what it’s like in our country”. The Glasgow playmaker said: “We have been talking as a group and we all understood that Japan are a growing nation and they have been playing some really good rugby”. It was South Africa – you just expect them to come our with all guns blazing but they didn’t.
