Scotland see off Japan with Seymour and Swinson offering hope for future

• Scotland 42-17 Japan
  • The Observer,
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Tommy Seymour
Tommy Seymour scores for Scotland agaionst Japan at Murrayfield. Photograph: Russell Cheyne/Reuters

Tommy Seymour scored two tries on his home debut as Scotland saw off the challenge of improving Japan following a flurry of second-half action. The Glasgow wing's try proved the difference in an uninspiring first half and he crossed again in the 55th minute after the second of Kenki Fukuoka's replies.

"In the first half to get two tries is really special for me," he told the BBC. "My parents were in the stand. We're not happy with a couple of things but I'm not going to complain. We're building for the World Cup in 2015 and I would like to think we can have hope for the future."

Greig Laidlaw had gone over the line after the first of the Japan wing's tries to take him past the 200-point mark in his 22nd Test, and Alasdair Dickinson, Duncan Weir and Sean Lamont, who had a first-half try disallowed, all crossed when Japan were down to 14 men.

Scotland had struggled to get into their rhythm but the five second-half tries would offer encouragement to their head coach, Scott Johnson, and his successor Vern Cotter, who takes over when his Clermont Auvergne contract expires at the end of the season.

Johnson has been trying to add more depth to the player pool to give Cotter extra resources before the World Cup and, although he named a largely familiar team, he would have been heartened to see Seymour's fellow home debutant and Glasgow team-mate, Tim Swinson, named the man of the match after starting ahead of the Lions lock Richie Gray.

The turf cut up badly, not helped by heavy rain, and Japan collapsed a scrum to enable Laidlaw to put Scotland ahead with a seventh-minute penalty. But the surface was so bad that two ground staff came on with pitch forks to repair the mess left by the scrum when play was at the other end of the park.

There were six people working on the turf in the Scotland end when Laidlaw kicked an 18th-minute penalty against the post after a shuddering tackle by Swinson had helped repel a brief spell of Japan pressure. Laidlaw kicked one over from 30 metres five minutes later as Japan continued to concede penalties, but Scotland were struggling to get any rhythm in their passing and running game and lost the prop Ryan Grant after he took a knee to the head while tackling the Japan centre Craig Wing.

Dickinson came on and Sean Maitland broke through to put Japan under pressure before the right wing Seymour crossed in the corner after quick passes from Al Strokosch and Ruaridh Jackson.

Ayumu Goromaru got Japan off the mark with a penalty after Laidlaw missed the conversion and the visitors had a let-off with a minute left of the half when Lamont had a try disallowed for an earlier obstruction before Nick De Luca burst past several opponents, following lengthy deliberations by the video referee.

Japan showed they were out to make a game of it less than three minutes into the second half when Male Sau burst past Jackson through the middle and kept running deep into Scotland territory before moving the ball out to the left. Several passes later and the ball was with Fukuoka, who ran round the outside to cross before Goromaru reduced the deficit to two points with his boot.

Scotland quickly got themselves some breathing space as they forced Japan to defend on their try line. After some intense pressure, Laidlaw found a gap to dive over before converting himself.

Fukuoka crossed again in the 52nd minute but Scotland responded three minutes later when Laidlaw and Jackson worked the ball out to Seymour to score.

Gray came on to a huge roar in the 58th minute and when Japan's No8 Ryu Koliniasi Holani was sent to the bin on the hour mark for repeatedly holding on to the ball in a ruck Scotland took advantage. Dickinson soon went under the posts and Weir celebrated his first international try just before the 10 minutes were up after some nimble play from Maitland on the left wing set him up to burst through.

The teams cancelled each other out when the numbers were evened until Lamont chased a long kick and forced a mistake from Goromaru, who hauled him down when the ball was loose.

The Japan full-back was shown a yellow card and Scotland had to make do with a penalty rather than a penalty try ..but Lamont eventually went over later in the move.

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