Kelly Brown expects a fierce battle on the touchlines from a Japan linout that has been benefiting from the expertise of his Saracens colleague Steve Borthwick.
Borthwick, the Saracens captain who played 58 times for England, teamed up with the Cherry Blossoms at the behest of Eddie Jones, the Japan coach who is currently recovering from a stroke. Japan, with so few big men to pick from, have long struggled in the lineout, but the Scotland captain believes his team-mate will literally raise their game in that area.
"Steve absolutely loves lineouts so they will be very strong there and their scrum is good as well," said Brown, now recovered from the ankle injury that saw the Scotland captaincy passed to Greig Laidlaw during Scotland's summer tour to South Africa. "They are improving all the time and we need to be sure that we are very sharp in all aspects of our game.
"He has been given a couple of weeks off by Saracens and he has been allowed to do this. I'm sure he will be very good at it. We actually flew up to Scotland on the same flight on Sunday and he was asking me about the team. I told him he would find out about it in due course."
Japan have rarely been able to match the physicality of European and southern hemisphere sides, but Brown believes things have changed on that front and that Scotland cannot expect a lightweight performance from their opponents at Murrayfield on Saturday.
"It will be an incredibly tough match," he said. "It is well documented that they beat Wales, albeit not the full strength Wales, over the summer. They have a good set piece and some very physical guys in the team. We are expecting a battle out there and we have to be absolutely on our game because it will be very tough. They are a side that likes to play, but I know that they are trying to get a bit more balance in their game."
There had been speculation that Laidlaw would retain the captaincy for the autumn Test series, if only because his goalkicking responsibilities all but guaranteed him his place in the side. However, Brown explained that he was relaxed about the leadership situation.
Brown said: "I don't think that it's a fight between me and Greig. We work as a team and if Greig had been captain we would still have worked as a team. We speak all the time and we speak about ideas and ways to improve the side and will continue to do that. I don't think it really matters who is the captain."
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