Japan forwards coach Steve Borthwick has admitted that his side's mistakes cost them in the second half of their Rugby World Cup defeat to Scotland this afternoon.
Eddie Jones's team trailed by just two points in the opening stages of the second half, but they conceded five tries and 33 points without reply to fall to a 45-10 loss at Kingsholm Stadium.
Borthwick admitted that the result was disappointing in the wake of the Brave Blossoms' unlikely victory over South Africa last time out, but insists that he is already looking forward to a crunch match with Samoa in their next outing.
"We're pretty disappointed. I think we did a lot of good work in that first half, but we're annoyed at the way the second half panned out. To concede tries as easy as we did is disappointing, but it's gone. You can't do anything about it. We'd like to do that second half again but we can't. We just have to look ahead and be right up for it against Samoa in 10 days' time," he told Sports Mole.
"We knew the situation. We knew the turnaround was quick. Credit to Scotland for some good play, but we need to look at the mistakes we made. We can't concede tries that easily, but ultimately I think there is still a lot of good stuff to take away.
"At half time we thought we were where we wanted to be, putting pressure on and we were only just behind them. We went into the second half thinking we had a good chance in that game, but it wasn't to be."
Asked whether the 35-point difference was harsh on his side, Borthwick added: "You get what you deserve. We need to look at why it was that many, how, what we could have done to prevent it to make sure it doesn't happen again.
"We've got Samoa in 10 days and we need to make sure we put in a top-class performance to try to get another win there."
Japan take on Samoa on October 3 before facing USA in their final Pool B match.
Barney Corkhill
