NOW Scotland know the scale of the challenge that awaits them in the Rugby World Cup.

After Japan shocked the rugby world by humiliating South Africa at the weekend, they will go past Scotland in the official world rankings when they are released today underlining the threat they will pose when the two sides clash in Gloucester on Wednesday.

Not, insisted Ryan Wilson, the Glasgow Warriors back row who is hoping to be in the Scotland 23 this week, that the performance or result changed a thing about Scotland's expectations ahead of the game.

"There is no easy pool, especially this one. We have four very good teams that we have to play against and it changes nothing for us," he said.

“I think South Africa probably helped them out a bit by giving them so many penalties.

"We'll be looking to keep that as low as possible and play in the right areas of the pitch.”

The key to doing better than the Springboks is to cut out the mistakes they made, he said while also pointing out that Japan had leaked some soft tries themselves and exposed some flaws that Scotland can hope to take advantage of.

“Every game is 80 minutes and it’s hard to concentrate for that full 80 minutes. No matter how well you are doing, there are always going to be a few slight lapses," Wilson said.“That’s what we will be looking for when we play Japan.

“We will be looking at breaking then down and keeping our skill set good. South Africa probably helped Japan out a bit by giving away so many penalties so we will be looking to keep that as low as possible. We also need to play in the right areas of the pitch.

"We had spoken about them and said they are very accurate in the first three phases, which they were.

"What impressed us even more is that they carried on with that afterwards. They were still accurate five, six, seven, eight phases afterwards. That was one thing we looked at, and thought 'that is where they have definitely got better' so we have to counter that."

The tricky thing for the Scots players now is containing their excitement waiting for their chance to get their World Cup under way.

"It makes it all a little bit more real. Watching the Fiji v England game got everyone going, it was pretty exciting to watch. You see the big games kicking off. That's it starting now. Now that one of or group games has kicked off, it gets you ready," Wilson added.