Scotland coach believes they will not be denied last-eight chance but the weather and a reluctance to relocate or postpone Sunday’s game against Japan suggest otherwise

One way or another, Scotland want to play this game. On Thursday their coach, Gregor Townsend, put heavy pressure on World Rugby to make sure his team’s pool match against Japan goes ahead, even if it is played a day late or has to be moved to another venue.

World Rugby has already announced the cancellation of two of Saturday’s matches because of Typhoon Hagibis and on Sunday morning it will decide whether to call off Scotland v Japan. The game is scheduled to be played in Yokohama at 7.45pm that night. On Thursday Townsend was insisting he had “a lot of confidence” it will go ahead.

Rugby World Cup: England v France off and Japan v Scotland under threat from Typhoon Hagibis Read more

“We believe the game hasn’t been cancelled because the weather forecast is much improved for Sunday,” he said. “It looks like the game will be played and that’s what we have to keep faith with.”

As the coach he does not have much choice; his team need to be ready. He is also so wrapped up in it that his perspective is understandably skewed. Townsend, unlike the officials making this decision – but exactly like most of the other British people out here – has not had a whole lot of experience weathering typhoons. And from this distance, his faith seems misplaced.

Three people died during Typhoon Faxai last month and it took more than a week to restore electricity and water to the worst-effected areas. Hagibis is expected to be three times bigger and if that forecast is accurate it seems unlikely Japan’s government will want 70,000 Scottish and Japanese rugby fans moving around Tokyo and Yokohama in the afternoon after what could turn into a major natural disaster.

Townsend said “it would be very unusual for a World Cup in any sport to be decided by a game being called off on one day. Let’s say you’re looking out of your hotel window at five o’clock on Sunday afternoon and it’s sunny, it would be strange if a game couldn’t take place.”

Which is true but it’s surely worth remembering that after the typhoon has blown through it is possible a lot of people are not even going to have any windows left to look out of. If the worst anyone has to deal with on Sunday evening is an empty sunlit rugby stadium it will be a blessing. Either way, the last thing anyone is going to be worrying about is whether they can get a game on or not.

The question, then, is whether World Rugby should have a contingency plan that allows the game to be relocated or postponed. Townsend would take either option if the game is called off. “It has to be that there is a game and if the game is on Sunday in Yokohama then great,” he said. “But we have to have faith that the game will be played even if it’s behind closed doors or at a different venue,” or, he added, “if that means Monday because it takes a day for things to be put back in order.”

They could even play it at a training venue, he suggested, adding: “All we need are officials and players.” It need not even be on TV.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A television screen at World Rugby’s press conference shows the potential impact of Typhoon Hagibis. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

Townsend and the SRU have argued there is a force majeure clause in the regulations that would allow this to happen but the problem is World Rugby is more worried about the spirit of the law than the letter of it.

It has already cancelled Italy’s match against New Zealand. And as the tournament director, Alan Gilpin, pointed out: “It’s important to remember Italy were in the very same position as Scotland.”

If they had won that match against the All Blacks, they would have gone through to the quarter-finals. Italy’s odds of doing it were a lot longer than Scotland’s are but, as their coach, Conor O’Shea, said: “We had the chance.”

Not any more. Gilpin said World Rugby is working on the principle that “if we can’t do it for all, we shouldn’t be doing it for any” because “we have to apply consistency to our contingency plan across all the games and we treat all the matches fairly”.

It is hard to argue Scotland should have a chance denied Italy just because they are more likely to take advantage of it. Gilpin said the challenge of reorganising all the pool matches being played this weekend was too great and that World Rugby was also worried about getting 12 teams who had been knocked out safely away from the country, which is a tacit admission the task was beyond the organisers.

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The problem, really, is the contingency plan World Rugby is “applying consistency to” seems to be to cross its fingers and hope the typhoon veers away, then, when it does not, to cancel everything and warn everyone to stay indoors. With 10 years to get ready, you would think it would have come up with something better.