Jamie Ritchie wishes Glasgow Warriors well - he’d just rather it was Edinburgh

Jamie Ritchie offers a wry smile when asked if he is hoping the Glasgow Warriors players turn up for Scotland’s World Cup training camp with a couple of winners’ medals jangling in their pockets.

Jamie Ritchie takes a selfie with fans after Edinburgh's final game of the season, against Ulster. (Photo by Leah Scholes/INPHO/Shutterstock)

“My Scotland kit says yes and my Edinburgh hat says something else!” says the flanker. As captain of both club and country, Ritchie has honed his diplomacy skills but he is smart enough to know that if Glasgow were to win either the Challenge Cup or United Rugby Championship, or even both, then the boost to the game in this country would be incalculable. “The more Scottish players we have playing at a high level, getting into some good form, playing against high-quality opposition in pressure games, the better, in my opinion,” added Ritchie. “I wish them all the best in the games they’ve got coming up. I’ll be watching and hoping that they do well, because they’re our mates at the end of the day.”

Ritchie could be forgiven a hint of jealousy as he views Glasgow’s progress. While the Warriors have a European final to look forward to and will be involved in the URC play-offs this weekend, Edinburgh’s season ended on April 21 with a defeat by Ulster in Belfast consigning them to a 12th-place finish in the league. One crumb of comfort is that it gives Ritchie and the rest of Edinburgh’s Scotland contingent more time off ahead of the World Cup, which kicks off in France on September 8. “We’d rather still be playing, but whenever you get a wee rest for the body it’s a good thing, especially in the sport we play,” said Ritchie, who was speaking at World Rugby’s Tackle Technique Day at the Oriam national sports performance centre in Edinburgh. “It’s been quite a big season with the year we’ve had and there’s another one coming up, so to get this bit of downtime is good for the head and for the body.”

Scotland are due to gather on May 29 for their first World Cup training camp which will last four weeks and include a week in the south of France, near Nice, which will be their base for the tournament in the autumn. There will then be a break before the squad reassembles to prepare for four warm-up Test matches, three of which will be played at Murrayfield, against Italy on July 29, France on August 5 and Georgia on August 26. There will also be an away game against France on August 12 at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, home of Saint-Étienne, one of French football’s great historic clubs. “We’re lucky that we’ve had a look at the place we’re staying down in Nice, we’ve been given a wee presentation on that and it looks like it will be a great place to base ourselves,” said Ritchie. “We’re going there for our last week of our first four-week block and staying there again before we play France in Saint-Étienne.”

Rory Darge has helped Glasgow Warriors into a European final and the URC quarter-finals. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

We hardly need reminded that Scotland have landed the toughest group in the tournament and kick off their campaign against World Cup holders South Africa in Marseille on September 10. There is then a two-week gap ahead of their second Pool B match, against Tonga in Nice on September 24. Scotland then head north to play Romania in Lille on September 30 before the titanic final group game against Ireland at the Stade de France on October 7. Scotland failed to qualify from the pool stage four years ago in Japan, and Ritchie acknowledged there are a few wrongs to right from 2019. “There’s maybe a bit of that,” he said. “We’re a very different team and we’re in a very different place as a group. We learnt a lot of lessons from that World Cup which have probably got us to where we are now. Straight after that tournament, we learnt a lot of lessons as a group and since then it’s been one of the most enjoyable environments that I’ve had the privilege to be involved in for that time period. It’s only got better. We’re in a really great place off the field going into this World Cup campaign. We just need to make sure we’re all working hard so we’re in the best possible nick for those Test matches before we go and, if selected, when we go out to the World Cup as well.”

Ritchie, who took over the Scotland captaincy from Stuart Hogg last autumn, steered the national side through a mostly impressive Six Nations, with victories over Wales, England and Italy counterbalanced by defeats to France and Ireland. The depth of talent in the squad has never looked better during Gregor Townsend’s reign and that is particularly true of the back row. Ritchie admitted he would have to fight for his place, just like everyone else. His Edinburgh team-mates Hamish Watson and Luke Crosbie both finished the season strongly, with the latter sweeping the board at the club’s end of season awards dinner. Over at Glasgow, Rory Darge has been excellent in recent weeks, back to his best after a long lay-off with a serious ankle injury, while Matt Fagerson and Jack Dempsey have been key players in their club’s resurgence which has seen them lose just once in their last 18 games. “There is a lot of depth in that back row and you don’t know what the coaches are thinking,” said Ritchie. “For me, it’s just about making sure I’m in the best possible shape I can be so if I do get selected, I’m going to be ready. We’ll wait and see. As a rugby player, you learn to set your heart on things too much because you don’t know what can happen. You might not get picked or you might get injured.”