​Injury rules former Howe of Fife flanker Jamie Ritchie out of rest of rugby’s 2026 Six Nations

​The 29-year-old missed Scotland’s opening 18-15 defeat away to Italy seven days earlier but was started at blindside flanker at home to England at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday, helping head coach Gregor Towsend’s hosts to a 31-20 victory.

Former national team skipper Ritchie scored his second Scotland try in 62 appearances since 2018 to put his team on their way to their fifth Calcutta Cup win in the last six years.

His 13th-minute touchdown was accompanied by two from outside-centre Huw Jones on nine and 52 and one from scrum-half Ben White on 26, with fly-half Finn Russell adding four conversions and a penalty.

Ritchie was one of three ex-Howe players in Scotland’s round-two match-day squad, with Matt Fagerson and George Horne named as replacements.

Fagerson, 27, took over from Ritchie at half-time for his 61st cap and Horne, 30, was brought on for White just ahead of the hour mark for his 42nd.

Those were their second appearances of the tournament as both were fielded in Rome the weekend prior, Fagerson starting at No 6 and making way for Max Williamson on 64 minutes and Horne replacing White at the same time, scoring his 12th international try two minutes later.

Confirming that Ritchie’s Six Nations is over, and the same is likely to go for left-winger Jamie Dobie and No 8 Jack Dempsey, assistant national team coach Peter Horne, another ex-player for the Cupar club, said: “It’s a brutal game test match rugby. It’s so physical now, with the collisions, the size of these boys, the physicality that’s involved.

“It’s devastating to lose them, three guys in top form. They were outstanding at the weekend and have been a big part of the group, both on and off the field.

“Thankfully, we have got a little bit more depth in the squad now than in some of the years gone by.”

Ritchie has been released back to his club, Perpignan, for rehabilitation and a spokesman for the French Top 14 side said: “After thorough examinations and specialist advice, surgery is not necessary.

“Jamie has a tibial plateau fracture. He has begun his rehabilitation phase. A return to competition is planned in approximately two months, subject to the favourable progress of his recovery.

“The club send their captain their best wishes for a speedy recovery.”

Scotland are away to Wales this Saturday, with kick-off in Cardiff at 4.40pm, and they head south looking for a fourth win on the bounce against them.

Looking ahead to that away-day, the elder Horne, 36, added: “I think we’ve just got to be really excited about the challenge that’s in front of us now.

“We were all very aware how big a game Saturday’s was for all of us and I thought the response from the players was outstanding. They doubled down on who they are and who we are as a group.

“If we’d lost that game, our championship was done and it would have been really difficult to pick ourselves up for this Wales game at the weekend, whereas now, we’re absolutely focused on going down to Wales, doing a good job and keeping our championship alive.

“I think we also can reference the fact that Wales will be in a very similar position to where we were last week. They’ll be hurting. They’re a wounded team at the moment and they’ll have that desperation that we had on show last week, so we’ve got to pay them full respect.

“Wales will be so fired up. Emotion can do incredible things to players – it can completely elevate your game – so we’ll be expecting them to come out of the gate absolutely ripping into us.

“They’re a very proud nation. They are tough boys as well, the Welsh lads. They’ll be looking to come in and rip into us, punch us in the face and just keep going at us. We’re really aware of the challenge.”

The Scots’ remaining games after this weekend are at home to France on Saturday, March 7, and away to Ireland a week later, both with kick-offs at 2.10pm.