A furious row has broken out in Japan where Scottish rugby chiefs have notified World Rugby of their intention to take legal action to ensure that the governing body of rugby’s World Cup does “whatever it takes” to ensure that Scotland’s final pool game against Japan is played.

The Scots’ legal advice is that under tournament rules there is flexibility to adjust the tournament schedule in cases of force majeure, and that the arrival of Typhoon Hagibis clearly qualifies as such.

At a series of lengthy and bad-tempered meetings, which lasted for most of Thursday and ended late into the evening, Scottish Rugby’s chief executive Mark Dodson – who was described by one insider as being “in a state of apoplexy” - and chief operating officer Dominic McKay were fighting to ensure that their final pool game goes ahead.

The Scots’ preferred outcome is to move the game back by 24 hours from its current time of 7.45pm on Sunday in Yokohama, to Monday at the same time. They stress that by then Typhoon Hagibis – whose arrival has already caused two games to be cancelled – is expected to have passed. If, however, their game is cancelled and the result declared a draw, the Scots will almost certainly be eliminated from the tournament at the pool stage.