Scotland Six Nations: Jamie Ritchie recall explained as Gregor Townsend has say on ‘Dupont’s law’

Three changes to starting XV as Scotland gear up for ‘most important game of season’ against England

Gregor Townsend never shies away from the significance in the Scottish psyche of the annual joust with England and admitted that he sometimes places too much significance on the fixture.

The sides will meet on Saturday for the 142nd time with Scotland seeking a fourth successive win over their oldest rivals. Townsend has made three changes to the side which lost at home to France a fortnight ago as he looks to keep the Calcutta Cup in Scottish hands. A fit-again Blair Kinghorn has come straight back in at full-back and there are also returns for Kyle Steyn and Jamie Ritchie.

Kinghorn, 27, missed the opening two rounds of the Six Nations with a knee ligament strain sustained while playing for Toulouse but has recovered and takes the place of Harry Paterson who had such an impressive international debut against France.

Steyn missed the French game after his wife went into labour but is back in the starting XV. His selection means there is no place for Kyle Rowe who played at full-back in Scotland’s Six Nations opener against Wales then moved to the wing for the France match. Rowe acquitted himself very well on both occasions and can consider himself unlucky to drop out. Neither he nor Paterson is on the bench.

The third change sees Ritchie come back in the team, selected at blindside flanker in place of Matt Fagerson who injured his shoulder against France but who was available for selection this weekend. Ritchie’s return continues a turbulent Six Nations for the Edinburgh back-row who was stood down as Scotland captain before the championship began but started against Wales before dropping out of the 23 for the French match.

The manner of the defeat by France still rankles but Townsend dismissed a report that Scottish Rugby had written to World Rugby asking for an admission that a game-changing error had been made in not awarding a try when Sam Skinner grounded the ball in the final play of the game. “We put in our normal feedback that goes through the normal process,” said the coach. “And the last decision was part of that feedback process.”

Townsend is keen to move on rather than become bogged down in recriminations involving match referee Nic Berry and TMO Brian MacNeice. “There is nothing that can be done,” he said. “The game won’t be replayed and it shouldn’t be replayed.”

Jamie Ritchie is back in the Scotland side for Saturday's Six Nations match against England at Murrayfield Stadium. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Instead, the coach would like to see his team revive their Six Nations campaign at a sold-out Murrayfield on Saturday. “When you’re coming in off the back of a defeat, you have to bounce back with a victory,” said Townsend. “You’re not really thinking about the championship. We’ll see where we are on Saturday.

“The full focus is on this game – because it’s our most important game of the season. It’s the most important game for our supporters and we also play for a trophy in amongst the triple crown and other trophies. But this is one that we’re focused on more than the others. That probably shouldn’t be the case, but it is.

“It’s history. It’s emotion. We’ve seen the impact this game has on Scottish supporters when we do manage to get a victory in this fixture. That’ll drive us on Saturday.”

Townsend admitted it was a tough decision to leave Matt Fagerson out of his 23 but Ritchie got the nod for “his breakdown ability, particularly defensively”.

“He’s one of the best of the world at jackals,” said the coach. “We’ve got another world-class jackler in Rory Darge. England have gone with two opensides, with [Ben] Earl playing No 8 and [Sam] Underhill with seven on his back.

“I believe that the breakdown will be really important. Jamie also played really well for Edinburgh [against Zebre last Friday]. It wasn’t a great team performance but Jamie was one of the standout players. He’s been determined to play his best rugby and we’re seeing that increasingly over the last few weeks.”

Kinghorn’s return is a significant boost for Scotland. He has flourished in France since moving from Edinburgh to Toulouse in November and aside from his rugby attributes, he brightens the environment.

“He’s obviously been in our squad for a number of years and he’s a brilliant guy to have in camp – laid-back, funny and just relaxed with not just us as a coaching group but his team-mates,” said Townsend. “He is obviously delighted that he was passed fit. He trained with Toulouse for three days last week and they gave him the all clear on Friday, he then came here on Saturday to do a run because we don’t start our training week until Tuesday, and he’s trained fully with us.”

Kinghorn possesses a mighty boot but Townsend is hopeful Scotland won’t be drawn into a game of kick-tennis like they were in the second half against France. The boring passage of play didn’t go down well with Murrayfield spectators paying £100-plus for their tickets and Townsend is hopeful the end is near for the so-called ‘Dupont’s law’ which allows teams to launch the ball back and forth while a large group of players loiter in the middle of the pitch, powerless to move if the kicker does not chase his own kick.

“We talk about space being one of the fundamentals of the game,” said Townsend. “This is a deliberate reduction of space.”

It’s been dubbed ‘Dupont’s law’ because it was the France great who first exploited the loophole but Townsend is distinctly cool on it and has welcomed trials in Super Rugby to try to eradicate passages of kicking.

“It’s never sat well with me,” he said. “I don’t believe England will use it this week but who knows. They don’t tend to kick it as long as France and we don’t want another episode like that.”

Scotland team: 15. B Kinghorn; 14. K Steyn, 13 H Jones, 12. S Tuipulotu, 11. D van der Merwe; 10. F Russell (co-capt), 9. B White; 1. P Schoeman, 2. G Turner, 3. Z Fagerson, 4. G Gilchrist, 5. S Cummings, 6. J Ritchie , 7. R Darge (co-capt), 8. J Dempsey.

Replacements: 16. E Ashman, 17. A Hepburn, 18. E Millar-Mills, 19. S Skinner, 20. A Christie, 21. G Horne, 22. B Healy, 23. C Redpath.