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Ritchie wants Scotland to kick-on from Six Nations win over England

rugby05 February 2023 14:55| © AFP
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Jamie Ritchie © Gallo Images

Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie wants his side's latest win over England to be a launchpad for sustained Six Nations success rather than the highlight of yet another frustrating campaign.

The Scots defeated England in their opening fixture of the Six Nations for the third consecutive season with a stunning 29-23 win at Twickenham on Saturday.

In the previous two years, however, they followed up with defeats against Wales and finished fourth in both championships, a trend that Richie is keen to end.

He has now challenged his teammates to build on an impressive effort when they face Wales at Murrayfield next weekend.

"It's just the start," said the Edinburgh flanker.

"It was the first thing we spoke about in the huddle after the win. We all came together and said, 'look, we've been in this position before and we've not backed it up' and that for us is the most important thing," Ritchie added.

"A strong tournament for us is five good performances so we will be looking for another one next week."

Scotland made the most of their chances at Twickenham, despite having less possession and territory, while a fine collective defensive effort also helped deny Steve Borthwick a win in his first match as England coach.

Duhan van der Merwe's stunning solo first-half try was a show-stopper but it was his second try, six minutes from time, that sealed victory as Scotland overturned an eight-point deficit to record consecutive Twickenham wins for the first time in over a hundred years of travelling to the London ground.

'STAYED IN THE FIGHT'

Scotland centre Huw Jones and scrumhalf Ben White also crossed England's line in a match that featured seven tries in total, but Ritchie said his team still had things to work on ahead of a match against Wales, well beaten 34-10 by Ireland in the first fixture of Warren Gatland's second spell in charge.

"I'm proud of how we stayed in the fight and we knew that if we stuck to our plan and we brought energy to how we wanted to play then we would create opportunities," said Ritchie, 26.

"It's good but it wasn't the perfect performance and that's probably a good thing as well, there's so much more that we can do better."

England, with just 11 days' training under Borthwick and new defence chief Kevin Sinfield, paid dearly for several missed tackles, with Van der Merwe evading five men en route to his first try.

But having been booed off the field at Twickenham following a lacklustre loss to world champions South Africa in Eddie Jones' final game in charge, there were optimistic signs for England in attack, with wing Max Malins scoring two tries and prop Ellis Genge crossing from close range.

"There's no panic about that performance but it's important that we build on that because we have Italy coming and we need to be better," said England flanker Lewis Ludlam said.

"In terms of how we want to play and the fight we showed, it was really encouraging from an England point of view."

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