Ritchie proud of return to form after 'challenging' Scotland blow

Jamie Ritchie takes pride in the way he has bounced back after a "challenging" Six Nations to rediscover his best form for Edinburgh.

Ritchie was relieved of the Scotland captaincy for the competition and was selected by head coach Gregor Townsend to start only two of the five matches.

The back-row has been back to his best recently in Edinburgh colours and was named the club’s player of the season.

"I understand the reasons that were given for me losing the captaincy and being rotated in and out of the team," Ritchie told the BBC Scotland Rugby Podcast.

"It was a challenge that I hadn't really faced before, starting in the Six Nations or being involved with the national team.

"Even going further back off the back of the World Cup, having been injured before half-time in two of the three games that I played in, that felt disappointing.

"For me, it's been a pretty smooth ride and rugby can be quite up and down, so for me it was just looking at it is a little bit of a challenge to overcome.

“These things come around and it's about how you kind of conduct yourself in and around the place and I'm proud of how I did that."

Edinburgh travel to Italy to face Benetton on Saturday knowing a victory will guarantee them a place in the United Rugby Championship play-offs.

Former Scotland captain and Ritchie’s former teammate, John Barclay, suggested recently that Sean Everitt’s team are caught between a pragmatic and ambitious style of rugby.

"No, I think we're reasonably clear how we want to play the game," Ritchie said.

"Not to make excuses, but there's been challenges certainly over the last few weeks around injuries in the backs and things like that maybe guys are playing out position.

"I think certainly the last few weeks we've been really clear in how we're wanting to play - a little bit more pragmatic, trying to play the game in the opposition's half and using the power of our forwards to our advantage so that we're getting ourselves into the game that way and then playing off the back of that.

"We're at Benetton this weekend, it's a massive challenge and it's basically a one-off game to kind of make or break our season."