Ritchie returns to captain Edinburgh after missing Scotland selection

Scotland flanker Jamie Ritchie will captain Edinburgh on Friday against Zebre in the United Rugby Championship, a week after missing out on selection to play France in the Guinness Six Nations.
After starting against Wales in Cardiff in the opening round of the Championship, the former captain missed out on selection entirely for the clash with France at Murrayfield in round two.
Gregor Townsend put the decision down to the balance of the back row, with co-captain Rory Darge returning from injury to start against France and with Andy Christie earning a well-deserved spot on the bench.
“I felt he wasn’t able to get his strengths out because of the way the game was being refereed," Townsend said when discussing his reasoning behind dropping Ritchie.
"Wales managed to get a number of penalties in the tackle area, we weren’t getting any.
“I’m sure Jamie would have had a bigger influence if the game had been refereed differently.
“It’s really just about the blend this week. Jamie responded outstandingly well as a person and team-mate but also in the way he’s trained and played in the last couple of games. He’ll be in the mix again for the game against England.”
The 27-year-old will hope to make a statement on Friday in Parma, with the Calcutta Cup looming in the next round of the Six Nations at Murrayfield.
Ritchie will lead an Edinburgh side that also contains Ben Healy at No10, who started on the bench against France. The squad also features WP Nel at tighthead, who missed the opening two rounds of the Six Nations with a neck injury.
Edinburgh XV
15. Emiliano Boffelli (35)
14. Harry Paterson (8)
13. Matt Currie (29)
12. James Lang (47)
11. Chris Dean (142)
10. Ben Healy (12)
9. Ali Price (8)
1. Boan Venter (56)
2. Dave Cherry (82)
3. WP Nel (197)
4. Marshall Sykes (53)
5. Glen Young (35)
6. Jamie Ritchie (105) CAPTAIN
7. Hamish Watson (149)
8. Viliame Mata (127)
Replacements
16. Paddy Harrison (12)
17. Luan de Bruin (22)
18. Javan Sebastian (8)
19. Tom Dodd (6)
20. Connor Boyle (39)
21. Ben Vellacott (50)
22. Mark Bennett (98)
23. Nathan Sweeney (2)
Latest Comments
Special player. The full set.
Go to comments“He won a ECL and a domestic treble at the beginning of his career.”
He won 2 ECLs at the beginning of his career (2009, 2011). Since then he’s won 1 in 15 years.
“He then won 3 leagues on the bounce later in his career”
He won 3 leagues on the bounce at the start of his career too - (2009, 2010, 2011).
If we’re judging him by champions league wins, he peaked in his late 30s, early 40s. If we’re judging him by domestic titles he’s stayed pretty consistent over his career. If we’re judging him by overall win rate he peaked at Bayern, and was better at Barcelona than at City. So no, he hasn’t gotten better by every measure.
“You mentioned coaches were older around the mid-2010’s compared to the mid-2000’s. Robson was well above the average age you’ve given for those periods even in the 90’s when in his pomp.”
Robson was 63-64 when he was at Barcelona, so he wasn’t very old. But yeah, he was slightly above the average age of 60 I gave for the top 4 premier league coaches in 2015, and quite a bit above the averages for 2005 and 2025.
“Also, comparing coaches - and their experiences, achievements - at different ages is unstable. It’s not a valid way to compare and tends to torpedo your own logic when you do compare them on equal terms. I can see why you don’t like doing it.”
Well my logic certainly hasn’t been torpedoed. Currently the most successful premier league coaches right now are younger than they were ten years ago. You can throw all the nuance at it that you want, but that fact won’t change. It’s not even clear what comparing managers “on equal terms” would even mean, or why it would be relevant to anything I’ve said.
“You still haven’t answered why Kiss could be a risker appointment?”
Because I’ve been talking to you about football managers. If you want to change the subject then great - I care a lot more about rugby than I do football.
But wrt Kiss, I don’t agree that 25 years experience is actually that useful, given what a different sport rugby was 25 years ago. Obviously in theory more experience can never be a bad thing, but I think 10 years of coaching experience is actually more than enough these days. Erasmus had been a coach for 13 years when he got the SA top job. Andy Farrell had been a coach for 9 when he got the Ireland job. I don’t think anyone would say that either of them were lacking in experience.
Now - what about coaches who do have 25+ years experience? The clearest example of that would be Eddie Jones, who started coaching 31 years ago. He did pretty well everywhere he worked until around 2021 (when he was 61), when results with England hit a sharp decline. He similarly oversaw a terrible run with Australia, and currently isn’t doing a great job with Japan.
Another example is Warren Gatland, who also started coaching full-time 31 years ago, after 5 years as a player-coach. Gatland did pretty well everywhere he went until 2020 (when he was 56), when he did a relatively poor job with the Chiefs, before doing a pretty poor job with the Lions, and then overseeing a genuine disaster with Wales. There are very few other examples, as most coaches retire or step back into lesser roles when they enter their 60s. Mick Byrne actually has 34 years experience in coaching (but only 23 years coaching in rugby) and at 66 he’s the oldest coach of a top 10 side, and he’s actually doing really well. He goes to show that you can continue to be a good coach well into your 60s, but he seems like an outlier.
So the point is - right now, Les Kiss looks like a pretty reliable option, but 5 years ago so did Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland before they went on to prove that coaches often decline as they get older. If Australia want Kiss as a short term appointment to take over after Schmidt leaves in the summer, I don’t think that would be a terrible idea - but NB wanted Kiss as a long term appointment starting in 2027! That’s a massive risk, given the chance that his aptitude will begin to decline.
Its kind of analagous to how players decline. We know (for example) that a fly-half can still be world class at 38, but we also know that most fly-halves peak in their mid-to-late 20s, so it is generally considered a risk to build your game plan around someone much older than that.
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