Ex-Scotland captain Ritchie set for Glasgow debut

Glasgow Warriors assistant coach Nigel Carolan believes the moment has arrived to unleash former Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie in the side’s first appearance. The 30‑year‑old flanker, who earned 63 caps for his country, joined the Warriors from French club Perpignan in the summer but missed the opening weeks of the season with ankle and Achilles tendon problems. He has now returned to full training and is expected to feature in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship match against Benetton in Treviso.

“He’s training fully. We feel he’s integrated into the systems now very well, and he’s itching to go,” Carolan said. “It would be great if we get him involved this week, either starting or on the bench. It would be really positive to have him involved, especially ahead of Scotland’s Nations Cup in a couple of weeks.”

Ritchie spent more than a decade as a cornerstone of the Edinburgh squad before moving to the French Top 14. He signed a two‑year contract at Scotstoun and, according to Carolan, the club deliberately waited for the right moment. “I think it was important to get the timing right. We didn’t want to rush him,” the Irish coach explained. “Obviously he had surgery over the summer so we didn’t really want to push him. He’s just moved to a new club and with all that going on, we felt the timing needed to be right. We could have involved him maybe last week but that was Ruwald van der Merwe’s time. So I think the time has now come to unleash Jamie Ritchie in a Glasgow Warriors shirt.”

The Warriors sit second on the URC table after three games, trailing only Edinburgh, and are favoured to beat second‑bottom Benetton this weekend. Glasgow finished top of the league last season but were eliminated in the semi‑finals by the Bulls. The summer arrivals of Ritchie and Van der Merwe, alongside the departure of back‑row Jack Dempsey, form part of Franco Smith’s ongoing squad evolution.