Ex-Howe of Fife star Jamie Ritchie calling on Scotland national rugby team to follow up victory against England with further win versus Wales

Ritchie and head coach Gregor Townsend’s side beat England 29-23 at London’s Twickenham Stadium in their opening fixture of this year’s Six Nations to win the Calcutta Cup for the third time in a row, the first time the Scots have pulled off that feat for over half a century.

The Edinburgh flanker is now urging his team to make further history by winning their two opening Six Nations fixtures for the first time ever, the last time Scotland managed to start off a championship with back-to-back victories having been in its Five Nations days in 1996.

The Scots, captained by Borderer Stuart Hogg at the time, followed up their last two opening-day wins against the English with losses to Wales, going on to end up fourth in the championship both times round, but Ritchie is determined not to allow that particular bit of history to repeat itself.

“It’s just the start,” said the Dundee-born 26-year-old, formerly at Madras College Former Pupils in St Andrews as well as Howe, following Saturday’s victory.

“We’re delighted to win and retain the Calcutta Cup, but we’ve been in this position before and not backed it up.

“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.

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

Scotland’s tries against new England boss Steve Borthwick’s hosts were scored by Duhan van der Merwe at the double, Huw Jones and Ben White, with Finn Russell adding three conversions and a penalty.

They had to come from behind to keep hold of the Calcutta Cup and Ritchie was heartened by that never-say-die attitude, adding: “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.

“It was a bit clunky maybe in the first half – our accuracy wasn’t maybe quite there, and we coughed up the ball a few times – but when we looked to play, we created opportunities and we took enough of them to win the game.

“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, so for us, it’s take those good bits, build on them and improve on the bits that weren’t so good and focus straight onto next week.”

Ritchie was joined on Twickenham’s turf by fellow ex-Howe player George Horne, brought on as a 69th-minute substitute.

Saturday’s game against Wales kicks off at 4.45pm at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium.