Scotland

Townsend has come under fire after a poor start to the tournament for Scotland, who lost their opening two games against Ireland and England without scoring a try.

Captain Stuart Hogg ended that drought to put Scotland ahead at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, and Chris Harris' second-half effort made it a 10-point gap that proved well beyond the hosts, who conceded a third try to Adam Hastings in the last minute.

The duo could return from injury, having been sidelined for the chastening loss to France in England's Six Nations opener.

Eddie Jones, who will name his 23-man matchday selection on Thursday, has cut Charlie Ewels and will be without injured duo Manu Tuilagi (groin) and Anthony Watson (calf).

Lock Launchbury is on the mend following a knee problem, while Vunipola missed the clash in Paris after suffering an issue with his eye.

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.

Townsend's men had endured an awful start to their campaign in a heavy opening defeat to Ireland, while hosts Japan's shock win against the Irish dealt a further blow to Scotland's hopes of advancing from Pool A.

But where Scotland had been poor from the off against Ireland, they were much improved on Monday and led 20-0 at the break.

Samoa's Ed Fidow then received two yellow cards and was dismissed for conceding a pair of penalty tries to hand Scotland a commanding 34-0 bonus-point win that brings them back into contention.

The Saracens’ wing got the Dark Blues off and running with the opener against Samoa and had a major say as they claimed the vital extras in Kobe.

With three touchdowns in the bag, Gregor Townsend’s team needed just one more score for the additional point that would fire them right back into the race for the quarter finals.

But Maitland almost blew his big moment with six minutes remaining as he threw himself at the line from five yards out.

The final score was USA 30, Scotland 29, after the visitors conceded two tries to Worcester hooker Joe Taufete'e and a gift score to flanker Hanco Germishuys to throw away a dominant first half with an error-ridden second.

They did give themselves a chance to win the game three minutes after the 80 minutes were up when Adam Hastings found the killer pass to put Dougie Fife, the replacement wing, in for their fourth try, but the touchline conversion proved to be too tricky for Blair Kinghorn.

Hawkins had looked set for a comfortable victory when he opened a lead of more than two minutes over Australia's Michael Shelley on the Gold Coast.

But in the closing kilometres Hawkins began to be affected by the heat, with the temperature having reached 28 degrees by the late stages of the race.

He started swaying towards the roadside curve and even crashed into the spectator area next to the course just ahead of the Sundale Bridge in Southport.

The Dark Blues' faint title hopes were extinguished with defeat to Ireland last week but they will be keen to propel themselves up the table with victory against the tournament's whipping boys after wins against France and England.

Wing Tommy Seymour returns from injury to replace Blair Kinghorn in Rome on Saturday, while centre Nick Grigg makes his first championship start as he takes the place of Pete Horne, whose blunder put Ireland on their way to victory in Dublin.

Huw Jones scored two tries, with Sean Maitland touching down in between, while Finn Russell delivered a man-of-the-match display to quell doubters that had sprung up in the first two weeks of the championship.

England were well off the pace at a raucous Murrayfield, regularly losing the battle on the ground and suffering from ill-discipline - giving away 13 penalties, one of which saw Sam Underhill sin-binned for a no-arms tackle.

Defeat was just Jones' second as England coach and the Australian offered no excuses for their below-par outing.

Harlequins wing Visser and Gloucester centre Scott have each earned recalls and are in contention to represent their country for the first time since June 2017, while Nel's inclusion comes after the Edinburgh prop proved his fitness after a spell on the sidelines with a broken arm.

Head coach Gregor Townsend has also called up Tim Swinson, who has recovered from a hand injury, Josh Strauss and uncapped Glasgow Warriors hooker James Malcolm.