Winless on tour, Australia were shocking in the 32-15 loss to England, among their atrocities being an amateurish 18 penalties.
That – along with Wales’ six-day turnaround – gives the woeful Wallabies a shot, even though they’ll be without their heart and soul in skipper Michael Hooper, who picked up a foot injury at Twickenham last weekend. The Dragons already had a casualty list that included captain Alun Wyn Jones, Ken Owens, Ross Moriarty and Taulupe Faletau along with the quartet of Leigh Halfpenny, George North, Josh Navidi and Justin Tipuric, who couldn’t even make it onto the place. Josh Adams and Tomas Francis had to withdraw from last weekend’s match against Fiji while WillGriff John and Will Rowlands suffered head knocks in the unimpressive 38-23 victory over the 13-man Islanders that have ruled them out of Saturday’s showdown. Betting-wise, the raft of injuring in the Welsh camp throw a serious spanner in the works. Injuries overshadow and will water down the quality of this contest. Scotland hung tough against the Springboks until the world champions’ slow poison kicked in and they’ll be far too strong for this Japanese out. Moreover, they’ve only played five Tests since their World Cup quarterfinal exit, leaving them so far behind the curve that they were crushed 60-5 by Ireland recently. Many of those heroes have retired, while others are injured.
Revenge will be had, however, instead of it being sweet, it’ll probably be a bit bland given Japan are a far cry from the ground-breakers they were on home soil two years ago. It came at the 2019 World Cup where Japan prevailed 28-21 to book their place in the playoffs for the first time in history while sending the Scots home early. Scotland will have the crushing defeat the last time these two nations met in the back of their mind.