Jones was sanguine when asked about whether the four-day turnaround was unfair on his team.
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Jones has moved to combat his side’s potential fatigue by making eight changes to the starting XV, which include Justin Ives replacing Hitosho Ono at lock, Amanki Mafi coming in for number eight Hendrik Tui and Harumichi Tatekawa playing at fly-half.
“They have to get back up and train again but I have no idea what team they are going to pick”. Are we fitter? Definitely. “Definitely”.
“It is our first game so there will be a lot of eagerness to get out there to play and start the World Cup and hopefully there will be opportunities”.
But Jones had a different assessment. ‘There’s only pressure when you don’t know what you are doing. Looking from the outside you’d have expected South Africa to have won their first two games before facing us.
“Last Saturday’s game suggested the order of world rugby could change”, he said.
The Scotland head coach, left, is plotting to prevent tomorrow’s Rugby World Cup opponents from another stunning result when they go head-to-head in Gloucester.
The pressure was all on Scotland, he stressed.
“We don’t have a choice now, we have to win, and in my experience when the Springboks have their backs to the wall, it brings out the best in us”.
“We don’t have any fears”. They played really well on Saturday, but we were always aware of how good they are.
But Japan have now leapfrogged the 12th-placed Scots in the official rankings after moving up to 11th.
“We have two objectives: reach the quarter-finals and be team of the tournament”, said Jones. “So this is a great chance for us to show that it wasn’t and we can really front up as a serious rugby nation”. Borthwick told the Telegraph that Jones gave the fearless Blossoms “clarity and belief” that they could beat the Springboks, who will battle off Samoa in their next game.
“I don’t think there are scores to settle”.
Dozens of Japanese journalists have flown in to Gloucester while media personnel from other far-flung spots across the globe have also hurriedly made their way to the West Country in case lightning strikes twice.
But Jones thinks his side will be able to call on the support of the local population on Wednesday. It has not been a great moment for South Africa and South African rugby history.
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“The priority for us is to ensure that we get our jobs right with accuracy, and impose ourselves on the game”. We had a very close encounter with them in the U.S. so we know we can’t take them lightly.
