Off the field, Scotland skipper Jamie Ritchie is so laid-back that it feels like a chaise longue rather than an office chair would be of more use for his press conference appearances.
The affable flanker stayed true to form yesterday evening as he fulfilled his media duties at Nice Airport, at the start of arguably the biggest five weeks [hopefully more] of his career to date.
“It’s great. It’s awesome. This last week we’ve all been itching to go,” he smiled. “Everyone keeps asking how I am feeling and all I can say is that I am ready to go. I think that’s the same for all the guys. We’ve prepared well, and we’re just delighted to be here.”
There is, of course, a full week still to wait before the tournament gets under way against South Africa next Sunday, and tension levels are bound to rise during that period – not just because it is the start of the tournament, but also because Scotland are playing the reigning champions who are in even better form than they were four years ago having demolished mighty New Zealand 35-7 in their last pre-tournament hit-out less just a fortnight ago.
It will be Ritchie’s job, along with the coaching team and senior players group, to instil an atmosphere in the camp which balances a positive dose of nervous energy with the calmness needed t to ensure that the focus remains on the game-plan and opposition … and not the occasion itself.
“All the guys are experienced and have played a lot of rugby so they know where they need to be around game time,” he shrugged, before pointing out that Scotland have nothing to lose given that few outside the squad are giving them a snowball’s chance in hell of progressing to the knock-out stage from perhaps the toughest World Cup pool ever.
“South Africa are coming into this off a great result against New Zealand and Ireland are arguably the form team in the last calendar year of rugby, so the pressure is definitely on them to perform because they are expected to get out the group,” he reasoned.
“For us, it’s a massive opportunity and I fully believe we can beat both those teams on our day. We know what those sides are likely to come with – how they want to defend and how they want to play – and I don’t think they’ll change for anyone, so we just need to come out fast and impose our game.”
While Scotland’s focus during the next few days will be almost exclusively on South Africa, Ritchie stressed that their following two matches against Tonga in Nice on 24th September and Romania in Lille six days later will not be taken lightly. With that in mind, he argued that the team’s victory over Georgia in their final warm-up match was the ideal
“I don’t think we played particularly badly in the first half, I think we were almost too eager to score quickly and coughed up the ball too easily or made a decision to push it too soon,” he said. “But the second half performance was much better, we were much more clinical, and we turned up the pressure.
“It’s not a bad thing for that to happened going into games against teams like Romania and Tonga when the pressure is on us to win. It reminds us of how we have to perform for the full 80 minutes in any game we play.”
Ritchie also tried his hand at ingratiating himself and his team with the natives by telling them how much he is looking forward to immersing himself in French culture during the next month, and especially indulging his passion for the local cuisine. It was going well until he was asked to name his favourite French food, and initially looked slightly lost for words.
“At home it is called French onion soup, but I guess it is just onion soup here,” he soon replied, showing again that trademark unflappability.
