Jamie Ritchie admitted he was worried if he’d ever make it to Japan when he suffered an eleventh-hour injury, but is now determined to make a difference for a squad low on morale after the defeat to Ireland.
Ritchie joined the squad late after having a plate inserted over a facial injury and wasn’t in consideration for the opening game, but he’ll have a bigger role now that he’s fit and Hamish Watson is headed back to Scotland.
“I feel for both Hamish and AIi (Price),” he said of the two players already ruled out of the rest of the competition through injuries in the first game. “I can imagine what they are feeling having felt a bit of it before myself.
“For them it is real and for me it was before the World Cup, not during it. I really do feel for them both but I am relishing the opportunity to play.
“Hamish would be a loss to any team. I will miss him personally away from the field as well but we will all miss him on the field, he brings to our game something I don’t think anybody else brings, with his ball carrying and ability to get over the ball.”
After the final warm-up game against Georgia when he suffered the freak injury – “someone’s head hit my face, I just went into a tackle and got my timing wrong” – Ritchie knew his place in japan was in the balance.
“I was pretty worried when I came off,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was going to make it or not, but then some pretty positive news came from my scan the next day.
“I had been thinking, I might be out for a few weeks and we’re not able to go, they would have to take someone else and that would be my chance at this World Cup gone. That was what was going through my head.
“I was a bit delayed coming to Japan but was able to come out. I was unfortunate to miss the first game but I am here now and ready to, looking forward to it.”
Ritchie is now likely to come in against Samoa looking to give a lift to a side shorn of confidence after Sunday’s reverse.
“It is hard to say what went wrong,” he said. “I don’t think anyone goes out to perform badly, and certainly, from the way the guys prepared last week, we were all shocked and disappointed at how the game went.
“But for us this week is a clean slate where we have to make sure we go out and get out preparation right, bring energy to training like always try to do, whether selected or not selected.
“The team that is running the opposition plays is almost more important than the team who is playing because they have to prepare the guys for what they are up against.”
Scotland have to have the tempo they need to play their preferred game against the Samoans, continued the back rower.
“We like to play a fast game so when we get slowed down, it is a bit of an issue for us,” he admitted. “For us it is about keeping the tempo high and winning the ball back when we get the opportunity,
“Sometimes the ball just does not go your way in terms of the defensive side of the breakdown, you don’t get the opportunity to make turnovers and teams are good at keeping their own ball, Ireland are especially good at that.
“For us, this week, capitalising on when we do have the ball and don’t have the ball to get some turnovers is treally important.”
