Scotland threatened to produce yet another thrilling comeback but ended up falling just short in a World Cup instant-classic against Japan on Sunday.
The defeat in Yokohama means Scotland are out of the tournament while the Brave Blossoms are into the quarter-finals for the first time in their history.
The hosts raced out into a 21-7 half-time lead thanks to scores from Kotaro Matsushima, Keita Inagaki and Kenki Fukuoka.
Fukuoka’s second soon after the restart looked to have put the game to bed, but Scotland showed in this year’s Guinness Six Nations that they never roll over.
And much like the Calcutta Cup in March, they came roaring back thereafter.
WP Nel and Zander Fagerson went over before the hour mark to supplement Finn Russell’s early first-half score and suddenly Scotland were alive.
But in the end they left themselves too much to do, needing to win by eight clear points and in the end falling short to a charged up Japanese side who more than merited their victory.
Russell’s early score was something of a false dawn for the Scots, who went into a 7-0 lead but then barely had a touch of the ball in the opening period.
Japan were relentless, Matsushima the first to go over from a Fukuoka offload before Inagaki got on the end of a free-flowing team try.
Fukuoka then collected Timothy Lafaele’s cute grubber for their third try on the stroke of half-time and the home crowd were rocking.
Fukuoka’s rip and run on Chris Harris appeared to have put the nail in Scotland’s coffin but Townsend’s side got down to work thereafter.
Nel went over from short range to start the comeback and then Fagerson was on the end of a fine Jonny Gray offload to bring them back to within a score.
But in the final quarter, Scotland’s accuracy deserted them and Japan held on for a famous win, their first ever over Scotland just 24 hours after Typhoon Hagibis had ripped through their capital.
