After causing one of the greatest upsets in rugby history, Australian born Japan coach Eddie Jones said it’s been straight back to business for the Cherry Blossoms, ahead of their second pool match against Scotland on Wednesday night.

Japan stunned South Africa 34-32 in their opening match of the tournament and will move a step closer to an inaugural quarter final berth if they can beat Scotland in Gloucester.

“We see the start of the Scotland game as being super-important,” Jones said. “If you look at Scotland’s record over the last 15 games, unless they get the lead early they struggle to win a game of rugby.

“I always think if you play well in a game, the first part of the next game is difficult. We have to make sure we work hard in the first part of the game against Scotland and score some points early.”

Before the Springboks victory, Japan had won just one World Cup match, beating Zimbabwe in 1991. However with matches against the USA and Samoa to come, the Cherry Blossoms will have a genuine chance of making the knockout stages, if they can beat Scotland.

“We’ve got the most important game of the tournament against Scotland. As you know we’ve only had a short turnaround which we’re well used to, so we’re going to be well-prepared for the game.

“It’s interesting that before the tournament Scotland said we were going to tank the first game. So if we did tank the first game we’ve got a good performance coming up in our second.”

Jones admitted his side would need to be at their best to claim back to back World Cup wins, however he said he didn’t think the players would struggle to get up for the match, despite the short turnaround.

“If the players can’t get excited after Saturday I don’t know what’s going to excite them. They’re excited, so I don’t have to worry in that regard. Motivation is not an issue.

“Scotland’s going to be a much more difficult game for us because wherever they were set up, they watched the game. They are fresh and have the tactics to counter the way we play.”

With a Japanese side set to enter the Super Rugby competition next year and Japan set to host the 2019 World Cup and 2020 Olympics, the Cherry Blossoms performance in the UK has monumental significance.

“Apparently rugby’s on the news now, which is unusual in Japan. It’s usually sumo, baseball, so the big sumo guys have had to move away for rugby.”

“It’s fantastic for the sport, fantastic for rugby. That can only be great for rugby going forward. The sport always talks about going global but an Asian country beating a top tier country makes it a real global sport.

“We didn’t come here to be a splash in the pond. We want to make a go at this World Cup.”