South African-born duo Lappies Labuschagne and Kotaro Matsushima scored four tries between them as Japan battled to a 30-10 victory over Russia in the opening game of the 2019 World Cup in Tokyo on Friday.

The hat-trick from Matsushima and the impact of a superior set of replacements as well as a more solid set piece saw coach Jamie Joseph’s men home despite a disjointed display.

Had the Russians made full use of the opportunities they created, the already tense contest could have been significantly tighter still.

Support-wise, the fans inside Tokyo Stadium created a great atmosphere, which will serve as an example for the tournament going forward. But if Japan’s on-field performance is any indication, the host nation has a long way to go if they are to achieve the goal of reaching the quarter-finals.

Japan were unable to gain outright ascendancy in the possession and territorial stakes and only started to exert sustained pressure on the Russians deep into the second half. The other striking feature of this clash was the high number of handling errors made by both sides.

Russia will be well pleased with how they started the game. After Japan nervously failed to secure the initial kick off, Russia retained possession and worked their way into a dangerous position. They set two lineouts, but twice the hosts managed to snatch the ball back and clear their lines.

However, the second clearance kick was a poor one and when Russia fullback and captain Vasily Artemyev put in an up and under, his Japanese counterpart humiliatingly fumbled the ball at the back and that allowed Kirill Golosnitskiy to pounce. A kind bounce saw the wing run onto the ball and straight over the tryline for the opening score of RWC 2019.

Japan would hit back minutes later when a no-look, behind the back pass created an overlap on the right side of the field and Matsushima was.

The rest of the half was just an error-strewn affair was both teams’ effort were stifled and blighted by basic mistakes. But Japan would have the final say before the break as Matsushima ran in for his second to put his side in front for the first time in the game.

The break brought about a turn in fortunes for the Japanese, who scored eight unanswered points – via a penalty from Yu Tamura and an excellent individual try from Labuschagne – to put some distance between them and Russia.