Preview: Japan v Scotland

There may be a tinge of revenge in their motivation, but they are more likely going to be driven by their desire to improve their world ranking to a top-10 spot - by beating the team ranked eight.

Scotland coach Vern Cotter has made six personnel changes.

The alterations are split evenly between the backs and forwards, with a positional switch made in each division to accommodate the new faces.

Scrumhalf Henry Pyrgos, wing Sean Maitland and centre Peter Horne all come off the bench to start the match, with Pyrgos taking on the captaincy and kicking duties from Greig Laidlaw.

Horne comes into midfield in place of the injured Duncan Taylor (hamstring), prompting a move to outside centre for Matt Scott to accommodate the Warriors playmaker.

In the pack, Rory Sutherland remains in possession of the loosehead berth he inherited in the third minute of last weekend's Test win over Japan, when Alasdair Dickinson limped off with a hamstring injury, earning his first start for the national team.

On the other side of the front-row, Moray Low swaps places with try-scorer Willem Nel, while Josh Strauss comes in to the back row for John Hardie, with John Barclay moving to openside to make room for Strauss on the blindside.

Japan coach Mark Hammett has made just two changes to the side that started last week's 13-26 defeat.

The physical presence of Male Sa'u, who is returning from injury, has been added to the wing (rather than his more favoured outside centre role), while Rikiya Matsuda was named at full-back.

Sa'u comes in for Mifiposeti Paea, who drops to the bench, while Matsuda replaces Kotaro Matsushima, who has an injured hamstring.

Elsewhere there is just one other change in the match-day 23, with number 8 Ryu Koliniasi Holani named among the replacements at the expense of Hiroki Yamamoto.

Recent results:

2016: Scotland won 26-13, Toyota

2015: Scotland won 45-10, Gloucester (World Cup pool match)

2013: Scotland won 42-17, Edinburgh

2010: Scotland XV won 24-5, Edinburgh (uncapped match)

2004: Scotland won 100-8, Perth

2003: Scotland won 32-11, Townsville (World Cup pool match)

1991: Scotland won 47-9, Edinburgh (World Cup pool match)

1989: Japan won 28-24, Tokyo (uncapped match)

1986: Scotland XV won 33-18, Edinburgh (uncapped match)

1977: Scotland won 74-9, Tokyo (uncapped match)

Prediction: The honeymoon appears to be over for Japan and Scotland may well win by a larger margin than last week.

Teams:

Japan: 15 Rikiya Matsuda, 14 Male Sa'u, 13 Tim Bennetts, 12 Harumuchi Tatekawa (captain), 11 Yasutaka Sasakura, 10 Yu Tamura, 9 Kaito Shigeno, 8 Amanaki Mafi 7 Shokei Kin, 6 Hendrik Tui, 5 Naohiro Kotaki, 4 Hitoshi Ono, 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Keita Inagaki.

Replacemen6s: 16 Takeshi Kizu, 17 Masataka Mikami, 18 Shinnosuke Kakinaga, 19 Kotaro Yatabe, 20 Masahito Yamamoto, 21 Keisuke Uchida, 22 Kobei Ono, 23 Mifiposeti Paea.

Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Matt Scott, 12 Peter Horne, 11 Sean Maitland, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Henry Pyrgos (captain), 8 Ryan Wilson.7 John Barclay, 6 Josh Strauss, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Moray Low, 2 Stuart McInally, 1 Rory Sutherland.

Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Willem Nel, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 John Hardie, 21 Greig Laidlaw, 22 Huw Jones, 23 Sean Lamont.

Date: Saturday, June 25

Venue: Ajinomoto Stadium, Tokyo

Kick-off: 19.20 (11.20 BST; 10.20 GMT)

Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy)

Assistant referees: Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand), Brendan Pickerill (New Zealand)

TMO: Ian Smith (Australia)

Source: @Scotlandteam