Divided loyalties on display for Scotland rugby captain Jamie Ritchie at Edinburgh’s latest appreciation night

That third annual nod to the sport’s grass-roots saw all 23 members of the capital outfit’s match-day squad for their 24-22 loss at home to Benetton wearing the socks of their home-town clubs or the teams they started out at, but flanker Ritchie – like team-mates Connor Boyle, Marshall Sykes and Chris Dean – opted to double up.

The 27-year-old, making his 100th appearance for the capital club, opted to wear odd socks acknowledging the grounding in the game he got both as a youngster at St Andrews’ Madras College club and, later, at Howe of Fife.

Ritchie has been at Edinburgh since 2014, joining them as a 17-year-old straight from Strathallan School, near Perth.

His first senior international appearance followed four years later and he’s now got 46 caps to his name.

Edinburgh play Ulster away in the championship this Saturday, with kick-off at 5.15pm, followed by a trip to France the Friday after to take on Clermont Auvergne in the European Professional Club Rugby Challenge Cup, with a 9pm kick-off.

This weekend’s game at Belfast’s Kingspan Stadium, formerly Ravenhill Stadium, will be Ritchie’s Scotland team-mate Blair Kinghorn’s last for Edinburgh before he moves to Toulouse.

Looking ahead to that swan-song, head coach Sean Everitt said: “Blair was really good on Friday night. If luck had gone our way a little bit on a forward pass, Blair might have got three tries in the first 25 minutes.

“He’s really important to this group. We respect him for his ability as a rugby player, and we respect him for his commitment to the club.

“Most importantly, in the world of professional sport, players come and go. There’s no reason why we can’t play him to his last game.”