Scotland World Cup win proved Japan wrong - Greig Laidlaw

Japan had shocked the rugby world by beating South Africa 34-32 on Saturday

"Outstanding" Scotland proved Japan wrong by beating the Brave Blossoms 45-10 in their World Cup opener, according to scrum-half Greig Laidlaw.

Laidlaw's penalties gave the Scots a 12-7 half-time lead before they ran in five second-half tries to earn a bonus point that puts them top of Pool B.

"We really put it to them in the second half," Laidlaw told BBC Sport.

"They were saying during the week that if they were in the game at half-time they were going to take us."

Japan shocked South Africa 34-32 on Saturday, but they were overwhelmed by Vern Cotter's side despite getting to within two points of the Scots after an Ayumu Goromaru penalty early in the second half.

John Hardie, Mark Bennett (twice), Tommy Seymour and Finn Russell all crossed for Scotland after the interval.

"That's just the start," added Laidlaw. "We've talked at length about playing for 80 minutes and we did that.

"We're delighted for the boys wearing the thistle.

"Credit to Japan, they were awesome in the first game against South Africa and again they were really tough opponents."

Japan had only four days between their win over South Africa and the meeting with Scotland, and Cotter's side face a similarly short turnaround with USA next up on Sunday at Elland Road (14:30 BST kick-off).

Mark Bennett scored two second-half tries for Scotland

"It's going to be difficult, last week's result certainly complicated things," said Cotter. "I thought there were good parts of our game, there's things we still need to work on.

"We're back in four days so we'll be recovering then looking at how we take on the States, who are a very good team.

"I felt Japan probably felt the four days today to be fair. We've got a good medical staff and they'll be working hard over the next four days to get us back on our feet."

Japan coach Eddie Jones refused to blame the short break between fixtures for their second-half performance.

"We just weren't good enough," he said. "We were in the game at half-time - at 12-10 we thought we had a real chance.

"Full credit to Scotland - they played very well. They took every opportunity they got, we didn't take our opportunities."