Flanker Ritchie to receive ‘specialist assessment’

FLANKER Jamie Ritchie will not be travelling to Japan with the rest of the squad today after picking up a facial injury in the match against Georgia at the weekend. Though his place in the travelling group has been taken by Magnus Bradbury, his Edinburgh teammate, Ritchie is still formally part of the squad, however.

Gregor Townsend, the head coach, had warned after the Georgia match on Friday there was a chance Ritchie’s injury might affect his World Cup. At that time he was being sent to hospital for scans but there was obvious risk he might be forced out.

Two days later, the situation is not much clearer after the team issued a statement saying he was being held back in Scotland for “specialist assessment” which would decide whether he could rejoin the rest of the squad in time for the competition kick off – presumably the judgment would be whether he could be back in time for the later stages of the pool stage.

Townsend will be anxious to have Ritchie available if possible since he is the only player who offers anything close to like-for-like openside cover for Hamish Watson. The other three back row in the original squad – John Barclay, Blade Thomson and Ryan Wilson – and Bradbury are all more comfortable at blindside or No8.

As things stand, Bradbury can work with the squad but cannot take part in any opposed training sessions and Townsend will have limited time at the training camp in Nagasaki to decide whether he stays for the tournament or if Ritchie returns.

The party will fly to Japan this morning, assuming their travel plans are not disrupted – as Australias already have been – by Typhoon Faxai, which was due to hit Japan’s eastern seaboard yesterday. As things stand, it should have blown through by the time Scoland are due to arrive but with the weather all things are subject to change.

At least their eventual destination in Nagasaki should escape any of the damage the typhoon might bring, but there was a warning that the storm might dump as much as a 12 inches of rain on Tokyo over 24 hours and that there could be disruption even after it has pased through.