Scotland will face Japan in the USA Sevens Bowl quarter-finals today (6pm GMT) in the fourth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series in Las Vegas. After battling hard in a tough group containing the fourth and sixth-placed sides in the series, first losing narrowly to Australia (12-7) and then Fiji (31-14), Scotland confirmed their place as the top seeded Bowl qualifier with a 21-19 win over Canada. Scotland will face Japan in the USA Sevens Bowl quarter-finals today (6pm GMT) in the fourth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series in Las Vegas. After battling hard in a tough group containing the fourth and sixth-placed sides in the series, first losing narrowly to Australia (12-7) and then Fiji (31-14), Scotland confirmed their place as the top seeded Bowl qualifier with a 21-19 win over Canada. Scotland head coach, Graham Shiel, said: “Overall, in the last two weekends, the squad have been competitive without exception. That’s testament to the players who keep coming back from testing situations – they never give up and they never stop working. “We were in a position to win the Australia game which is disappointing as we could be sitting in a Cup quarter-final but we didn’t execute well enough. We controlled a lot of the game but we couldn’t finish them off when we needed to.” Expectations were high for the Aussies after reaching the cup semi-finals in the previous Wellington leg of the Series. However, while they opened their account with an unconverted Bernard Foley try, the sides battled it out for more than three minutes outside of the regulation seven until Hamish Angus’ conversion of Foley’s second try finally brought an end to a half which saw Scotland lose the services of young winger James Fleming with a knee injury, 12-0. Two minutes into the second-half and Scotland were rewarded for their part in the game when Struan Dewar crossed for a fine try. Unfortunately Andrew Skeen’s third minute conversion was the last score of the tense tie which continued as a hard fought affair up until the hooter, 12-7. Fiji, fourth in the series but second seed in this tough group, showed their class in Scotland’s second match of the day when they took the early lead through with a Mitieli Nacagilevu try, converted by Emosi Vucago. The Scots stuck in and were rewarded on the fourth minute when Michael Fedo crossed the whitewash and the increasingly impressive Skeen equalised with the conversion, 7-7. However, after reclaiming the lead through a sixth minute Nikola Matawalu try, the Fijians probed on outside of regulation time before Matawalu made his brace after the eighth minute – Vucago converting both attempts before half-time, 21-7. Scotland started brightly in the second-half and, after two minutes, Skeen was adding the extras to his own try to keep the Scots in contention (21-14), though that threat was short-lived as two minutes later Seremaia Burotu crossed for a unconverted try before Vucago completed his hat-trick with a converted try, two minutes outside of regulation time, 31-14. Scotland’s third and final match of day one was a narrow three-try victory over Canada. The sides were level at half time having crossed for a converted try each – Skeen accountable for Scotland’s points so far in the match, 7-7. Scotland started the second-half well as Scott Riddell and James Johnstone both scored tries which Skeen converted, 21-7. However, with the match looking all but won, Canada bounced back with a converted try in the sixth minute before hanging on for a third after the hooter, though Nathan Hiriyana’s missed conversion meant that Scotland went through as the pool’s top seeds to the day-two Bowl competition. Looking ahead to tomorrow’s opening tie, Shield added: “Japan will be another challenge for the squad, as with anyone we play at this level, so it’s going to be a tough game for us. “We have to look at ourselves and our performance because, as we showed today, when we have possession and keep ball we do well.” Scotland 7s squad:Mark Cairns (Currie), David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby/Hawick), Struan Dewar (Edinburgh Rugby elite development/Heriot’s), Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors), Michael Fedo (Team Northumbria), Graham Fisken (West of Scotland), James Fleming (Glasgow Warriors/Dundee), Fraser Harkness (Selkirk), James Johnstone (Glasgow Warriors elite development/Currie), Scott Riddell (Stewart’s Melville FP), Ross Samson (Edinburgh Rugby), Andrew Skeen (Watsonians) Two days, sixteen nations, 44 matches – one great weekend! For a fifth season the IRB Sevens World Series comes to Murrayfield with the Emirates Airline Edinburgh 7s being the eighth and final leg of a super season of international sevens. Scotland put in a stellar performance at the last event, bringing home the Plate after defeating some of the big hitters on the sevens circuit – Fiji, USA, Wales, South Africa and Argentina.  Samoa were the overall winners in Edinburgh, taking home the Ned Haig Cup, as well as the main IRB Sevens World Series trophy. Tickets for this fast and furious festival of rugby are on sale now and are priced from£5 for under-18s,£10 for students and senior citizens and£20 for adults. All tickets are ANY DAY tickets – valid for one day of your choice, either Saturday 28 May or Sunday 29 May. HSBC SEVENS WORLD SERIES: USA 7s (Saturday Sunday 12/13 February)POOL A: England, Argentina, France, GuyanaPOOL B:  New Zealand, Wales, Kenya, UruguayPOOL C: Australia, Fiji, Scotland, CanadaPOOL D: Samoa, South Africa, USA, Japan 2010/11 HSBC Sevens World Series scheduleDubai, UAE – 3-4 December 2010George, South Africa – 10-11 December 2010Wellington, New Zealand – 4-5 February 2011Las Vegas, USA – 12-13 February 2011Hong Kong – 25-27 March 2011Adelaide, Australia – 2-3 April 2011London, England – 21-22 May 2011EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – 28-29 MAY 2011 FOR PLAYER PROFILES OF THE SCOTLAND 7s SQUAD PLEASE VISIT WWW.SCOTLANDRUGBYTEAM.ORG