5 ALIVE FOR JAMIE SEALS TOP 4 DREAM
JAMIE RITCHIE is confident Edinburgh can bounce back from their recent disappointments and win all five of their remaining league games.
The capital club dropped out of the URC’s top eight play-off places last month when they lost to the Sharks.
And last week the same opponents knocked them out of the Challenge Cup.
But ex-Scotland skipper Ritchie reckons his team can still set off on a winning run that should be good enough to take them into the top four.
They are at home to Scarlets on Saturday then play Cardiff, Zebre, Munster and Benetton in the run-in.
And if they do get into the top four that will give them a home draw in the play-off quarter-finals.
He said: “We firmly believe we can win all our games on the run-in. I don’t think that is an unattainable goal.
“Obviously we’d prefer to be in the mix in both [league and cup] but I think it makes our plan ahead pretty clear. We know what we need to do to be where we want to be, so that’s the silver lining of being out of Europe.
“Five wins gets us in the top four, which is where we want to be with a home quarter-final.
“But the teams below us are fighting for something as well so we certainly know there are no easy games.” There is sure to be
a massive dogfight to get into the top eight. But Ritchie insists he isn’t concerned by the fact his team are currently on the outside looking in.
He said: “That middle part of the league is so close that it changes from one week to the next.
“There is one point between us and eighth at the moment so it’s not a huge concern.
“We’re confident with the run-in we’ve got that we can put some points on the board and climb all the way up that log.”
If Edinburgh do get into the top four they are likely to avoid a quarter-final with rivals Glasgow, who are currently second.
But if his club do finish lower than fourth and are drawn against the Warriors, back-row forward Ritchie insists they would welcome the chance to cross swords with their old foes again.
He said: “It would be really good fun.
“We beat them earlier in the season. We would be confident that we could go there and put in a good performance.”