After being on the receiving end of a heavy defeat to Scotland on day one, Samoa U20 went down 81-7 to Japan on day two on Monday in the World Rugby Trophy Challenge.

Samoa could not turn early territory into points, and it was Japan who opened the scoring when centre Yamato Ueda went over from close range in the eighth minute.

Ueda’s centre partner Takaya Motohashi missed the conversion, as he did four minutes later after hooker Kenshin Shimizu had piloted a powerful lineout drive to notch his fourth try of the tournament and double the Japanese lead.

Flanker Shusui Kamei then profited from some quick thinking from Japan scrum-half Joji Takaki to score in the left corner, but again it was unconverted.

Japan secured the bonus-point try in the 25th minute when Ebisawa came off his wing to get the ball in midfield and cut through the Samoa defence. This time Motohashi added the extras.

Ebisawa then collected a pin-point Motohashi cross-field kick for his second try of the night, four minutes later as Japan appeared to be cruising at 27-0 up and with 10 minutes of the first half still to play.

But, had Panaua Niulevaea converted a penalty attempt bang in front of the posts or number eight Benjamin Faavae won the race to the bouncing ball following his charge down or Niulevaea not been dragged down metres from the line, then Samoa may have eaten more into the Japanese lead before the break.

As it was, they had to settle for Maoaluma Pasa’s try on the stroke of half-time as the fly-half went over under the posts following good work from winger Taitaifono Tavita and scrum-half Ravuama Seruvakula.

Niulevaea converted to leave Japan 27-7 in front at the interval but that was as close to their opponents that Samoa would come.

The Pacific Island nation did not lack for effort in the opening exchanges of the second half but once Shimizu had gone over at the back of another lineout drive in the 49th minute, the floodgates burst open.

It was the first of four tries scored in 11 second-half minutes, each converted – the first by Takaki and rest by Motohashi – as Japan accelerated into the distance.

Jinnosuke Mori got the second of those, after Samoa had initially repelled a driving maul, before winger Kent Iioka finished a flowing move and second row Chuka Ishibashi powered his way over.

With the victory assured, Japan added four further tries in the final 15 minutes as replacement forwards Ryoku Masuo and Kyoya Tanaka went over, before winger Ebisawa completed his hat-trick and Tasuku Masuyama scored to make the final score 81-7.

Samoa ended the match with 14 players after Faavae was sent to the sin bin for illegally attempting to bring down the drive from which Tanaka scored.