Eddie Jones hints that the blame is Scotland’s alone if they are knocked out of the World Cup by Super Typhoon Hagibis.

The Scots will miss out on the quarter-finals if their match against hosts Japan in Yokohama on Sunday suffers the same fate as England’s clash with France and New Zealand’s game against Italy and is cancelled due to the approaching cyclone.

But Jones has limited sympathy for Gregor Townsend’s men given that all teams knew the potential for extreme weather events to intervene, highlighting the need to take them out of the equation.

Typhoon Hagibis' likely path and sporting events affected
(PA Graphic)

England secured qualification with a game to spare and Jones said: “We’ve been talking about it all the time, about the possibility that this was going to happen.

“It’s typhoon season, so you go somewhere else and it’s terrorists season. You know what’s going to happen. It’s typhoon season here and you’ve got to be prepared for it.

“We had an idea it could happen and therefore you have to accumulate points in your games to put yourself in the right position in case that happened.

“We just knew that there was the possibility of a game like this during the tournament so we just wanted to put ourselves in the best position we could.

New Zealand coach Steve Hansen
Steve Hansen admitted Scotland will have suffered from not picking up wins early on (David Davies/PA)

“This is supposed to be a big typhoon, so I don’t see any other option that the organisers had.

“That’s why we’re not concerned at all about the comings and goings of it, we think it’s the right decision.”

New Zealand boss Steve Hansen echoed Jones’ view.

“We have to back World Rugby’s decision and if other teams miss out, it’s unfortunate, it’ll be disappointing,” Hansen said.

“If you want to be really ruthless, then it’s all about making sure you win the games on the way through because everyone knew this could be a possibility.”