Jamie Ritchie: Scotland don’t feel like underdogs ahead of England clash

Jamie Ritchie insisted Scotland are paying no attention to the fact they have been classed as underdogs for Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations showdown with England despite their recent dominance of the Calcutta Cup.

The Scots have won each of their last four meetings with the Auld Enemy and have lost only one of the last seven.

But England, who last triumphed in 2020, are red-hot favourites across the board with bookmakers to make home advantage count at the Allianz Stadium, while Gregor Townsend’s side are a whopping 3/1 to claim the silverware for the fifth year running.

“No, to be honest,” said back-rower Ritchie when asked if he was surprised by his side being written off by the bookies.

“I think with most Six Nations games, people like the favourites to be the home team. They’ve just come off the back of a big win (against France), we’re off the back of a loss (against Ireland).

“The bookies will make their decisions based on that, I’m sure. But we’re under no illusions about the ability that we have. We know how well we’ve performed against England in the past, but it’s about getting it right on Saturday.

“We never talk about being underdogs in games that we’re playing in. It’s not something that we ever speak about, or it’s certainly never in my mindset.

“Obviously, we’ve had a pretty good run against them in the last few years. It’s a game that requires no external motivation for us. We’re under no illusions as to the challenge that’s facing us, but we’ll be up for it definitely.”

Ritchie was captain when Scotland claimed the Calcutta Cup on their last visit to Twickenham two years ago after two stunning tries from Duhan van der Merwe helped secure a 29-23 victory for the visitors.

“It was a real special game to be a part of,” he said. “There were some big moments in that game which make it really memorable. Obviously, Duhan’s try and then the great team try we scored at the end to win it, which was also Duhan’s try, wasn’t it?

“And then defending our line really well at the end when they had a chance to win it, these are things that made it a really special memory. And then obviously the icing on the top was getting to lift the Calcutta Cup.”

Ritchie was speaking from Scotland’s warm-weather training base in Spain for the first time since his impending transfer from Edinburgh to French Top 14 side Perpignan this summer was announced earlier this month.

“It was a massive decision for me, one that my wife and I spent a lot of time mulling over,” said the 28-year-old. “Obviously, I’ve loved my time at Edinburgh. I arrived at Edinburgh when I was 17 years old, my whole career and adult life has been spent at the club.

“But if I had decided not to leave now, I think I never would have. I probably would have regretted it if I had never challenged myself in a different club, in a different league, so that was part of the decision.

“Part of it was about experience for myself and my family, getting to live abroad and all the things that come along with that.

“Even when you’re younger and talking about the future of your career, it’s always something you speak about because it’s quite a common thing in rugby to move about a bit, isn’t it? So something like playing in France for me was always something I thought I’d potentially do.

“Whether that had been early in my career or later, I never really knew, but it’s something I thought would be an exciting challenge. When the opportunity arose, it was something I was really interested in and it made for a very difficult decision.”