3 all

Japan have looked good so far, but I expect England to pick up momentum as the match goes on

Agreed. Japan will have to play out of their skin to win this ome.

England stuttering a bit but I think they'll find their rhythm and put the plucky Japanese away.

6-3 to Japan. It woul d be poetic justice if Japan wins on kicks.

Poms get a try from a bad throw in by Japan.

Ford misses. Poms will need his boot to be working.

Get field position, draw a penalty. Happens too much in rugby these days.

The pole kicking at this tournament has not been great so far. 

Fun game so far.

England not playing smart rugby atm. They need to slow things down but are instead getting sucked into the frantic game the Japanese want to play.

Scrum parity thus far...which I''m sure the Japanese are taking heart from.m

The more I watch the other sides the more it's clear how ahead of them our pack is. We'd be bossing both these teams. England turned over one solitary ruck ball in that entire half.

Thank heavens we're playing Ireland soon and will be able to gauge exactly where we are instead of knowing we're better than the rest but having the Irish variable monkey on our backs.

Still bussing from that Fiji game.

That was a tense and exciting game Plum but not for the usual reasons.

A header by Marler. What a lucky try. 

Now that's using your head, lol

Some good running rugby from both sides.

Strange game yet again. 

Too much aimless kicking from my lot. 

Massive improvement needed ! 

They respected Japan too much, Becs.

The Boks do that all the time.

And it always gives lessers teams more confidence while eroding that of the better side.

The aimless kicking was evidence to the undue respect.

Perhaps it was recent performances or the the Japanese scrums, maybe both.

Yeah you could be right, Plum. 

We’re definitely struggling as a team though. The constant kicking is driving everyone mad ! 

They have said it was too humid to play as they wanted so they had to resort to kicking but we’ve been doing that a lot anyway. 

At least it looks as though we will get out of the group now, something I was unsure of before the start of the tournament. 

It’s stressful being an England fan, you know !