SCOUTING REPORT

Namibia yesterday named a front five containing only one man with more than a dozen caps to his name for what is traditionally one of the most perilous missions in rugby World Cups . . . facing the All Black second string.

That is partly down to how rarely Namibia get the chance to play Test matches, but French-based P J van Lill is also the only one of that quintet to have played previously at a World Cup.

There is a bit more knowhow behind him with skipper Jacques Burger and his back-row colleague Tinus du Plessis both taking part in their third World Cup as is scrum-half Eugene Jantjies, while his half-back partner Theuns Kotze is playing in his second, but the task facing them could hardly be more fearsome with players of the calibre and experience of Sam Whitelock, Liam Messam, Victor Vito, Julian Savea, Colin Slade and Sonny Bill Williams all among those seeking to make a point to the All Black selectors.

Japan may be the inspiration for the tournament’s minnows this time around, but the memory of what happened to them against the second string All Blacks 20 years ago lingers in the memory as most of the tournament scoring records set that day still stand.

If any further incentive were needed for the New Zealanders, the murmurings about some of their great names being at a dangerous age is only likely to ensure that they go for the jugular.

On which note, with similar concerns having been raised about South Africa in the wake of their shock defeat to Japan, there will be particular interest in Cardiff tonight in how Matt Giteau performs on his first World Cup appearance in eight years.

As so often the Wallabies, who won this year’s Rugby Championship seem to have timed their World Cup run well, however, Stephen Larkham, their assistant coach observing: “We’ve had a pretty good prep. The Rugby Championship was really the first time we’d been together as a team on the field and we are pretty happy with that performance.”

GOOD DAY

For Sam Cane who discovered that the captain’s armband has apparently been permanently stitched onto New Zealand No.7 shirt for this World Cup after he was brought into an overhauled All Black side for their second outing of the tournament against Namibia tomorrow.

“It’s a great honour,” he said of replacing Richie McCaw as both openside flanker and captain.

Still only 23 he has been part of the All Black set-up for some time having made his debut three years ago, but still could not wait to tell his parents about the accolade.

“It took me by surprise a little bit,” Cane admitted.

“It was extremely special to become an All Black for the first time but to be able to lead your country out stands above that. So I’m hugely honoured and extremely excited about it.

“Fortunately, my mum and dad have come over for the game against Argentina and I had a little bit of time with them this morning at breakfast and I was able to tell them in person, which was pretty nice. I found out yesterday. They were very proud. Mum gave me a cuddle and it was nice to be able to them personally.”

BAD DAY

For England centre Jamie Joseph who knows that the options his team’s management have available in the midfield could represent a longer term problem for him at this tournament than missing the crunch encounter with Wales at Twickenham.

Assistant coach Andy Farrell reckons that if Joseph does not recover from a chest knock in time for Saturday’s Group A clash he will certainly be fit for their next match against Australia, saying: “It’s nothing too serious and we’re working hard to get him fit. If he is not fit, he probably won’t be more than a week out.”

However one’s man’s injury is always another’s opportunity in a tournament like this with Henry Slade poised to seize his chance as a direct replacement, while Sam Burgess, the rugby league convert who made a considerable impact when he came off the bench against Fiji, is also desperate to force his way into the starting midfield.

TALKING POINT

Only in Scotland could Japan’s victory over South Africa be viewed as justification for self-flagellation.

The World Cup upset has been universally celebrated (outside South Africa at least), so it was astonishing to see the minnows’ win being, on social media, put forward as somehow justifying the long debunked argument that Frank Hadden blundered when sending out a second string side against the All Blacks way back at the 2007 tournament.

The suggestion being made was that Japan showed what can happen when

a team has the courage to have a go at the big boys.

Setting aside the difference in expectations which allowed a relative unknown quantity to spring a surprise in a tournament opener as opposed to New Zealand – whose own second team has regularly been able to maintain a more than century-long unbeaten record against Scotland – facing opponents whose capabilities they knew only too well, the reality is that everything that has since happened at World Cups has proved Scotland’s management right that day.

In 2007, having kept their best players fresh, Scotland squeezed past a very confident Italy by a solitary point to reach the quarter-finals where they came much closer to beating Argentina than hosts France did on two meetings with a fine Pumas side.

However what reinforced the correctness of the decision made in 2007 is what happened four years later when, with a squad of very similar standard – perennial Six Nations strugglers as Scotland have been in the past decade – Andy Robinson fielded his strongest side in consecutive matches and failed miserably to maintain Scotland’s record of never having failed to reach the last eight.

The parallels could hardly have been clearer since the opponents were the other pool contenders England, a team Scotland has had extreme difficulty beating in the professional era – except, ironically, under Hadden – and Argentina, against whom they had, by then, around a 50/50 chance.

Over the past three global gatherings since Argentina finished third in France and then completely disregarded Georgia scared the bejaysus out of Ireland, international rugby has been moving steadily towards a new era of competitiveness with the potential that can be unleashed if the necessary encouragement is offered to what are described as the Tier Two nations, now all too obvious.

Earlier this week I drew comparison with football’s 1966 World Cup – like this current tournament the eighth running of that event – and it feels as if rugby has, these past few years, undergone a similar process to football in the 60s which is when, I would venture, it started to become the global game it is now as the European Cup established itself and World Club Championships were introduced.

Rather than second-guessing the last coach to steer Scotland to the knockout stages, then, it may be worth considering just how difficult it is likely to become to emulate that achievement going forward.

We will know better tonight whether the 2011 failure to get through will look like a blip or the start of a new trend

for Scotland, just as in the 60s and

early 70s Scotland’s status and influence within international football began to diminish to the extent that merely reaching major championship finals would be a massive achievement.

The protectionism of the traditional rugby powers may fend them off a little longer, but the Japanese, Georgians and Romanians, not to mention the Argentinians, Samoans and Fijians are coming which can only be good for rugby as a whole and, taking all of that into account, with the footage of Saturday’s astonishing events available to be replayed over and over during the next four years, where better than Japan to stage rugby’s equivalent of Mexico 1970.

AND ANOTHER THING …

Everyone who has ever pulled on an England international shirt is getting to demonstrate his punditry potential but you would like to think those auditioning would be a wee bit of homework.

Asked about Stuart Hogg’s recall to the Scotland team yesterday, then, you would have thought Simon Shaw could have managed something a bit more meaningful than vaguely offering the opinion that: “He is the sort of vastly experienced campaigner you need for a campaign like this.”

Admittedly, such is the nature of modern Test rugby, the 23-year-old full-back does already have 33 caps to his name but he can hardly be considered a veteran as he prepares to make his World Cup debut against Japan.

WHAT’S ON TODAY?

Only the matter of Scotland

kicking off their campaign

against the tournament’s new poster boys Japan at Gloucester’s Kingsholm, while Australia and Romania also make their first appearances against Fiji at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium and France at London’s Olympic Stadium respectively.

Namibia and New Zealand will meanwhile have their captain’s runs at the Olympic Stadium ahead of that France v Romania encounter.