Captain Jamie Ritchie passed fit as Scotland name team for crunch Ireland clash

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Captain Jamie Ritchie passed fit as Scotland name team for crunch Ireland clash

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Captain Jamie Ritchie in action against South Africa
Captain Jamie Ritchie in action against South AfricaReuters
Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie (27) has been passed fit to play in their must-win Rugby World Cup Pool B fixture with Ireland in Paris on Saturday as wing Darcy Graham (26) keeps his place and full back Blair Kinghorn (26) earns a 50th cap.

Scotland will advance to the quarter-finals at the expense of Ireland if they win and either deny their rivals a bonus-point, or are victorious and get the same number of bonus-points in the game as the Irish.

If they win by 21 points or more, with a bonus point, and Ireland also claim an extra point for four tries, both teams advance at the expense of South Africa.

"We can’t wait," coach Gregor Townsend said. "It is going to be a special game to decide who gets into the quarter-finals.

"We love playing in the stadium too, the last two visits we have made, we have played really well and we know it will bring the best out of us."

Ritchie missed the 84-0 victory over Romania after a sickening tackle against Tonga left him concussed, but returns to a back row of the scrum that also contains Rory Darge (23) and number eight Jack Dempsey (29).

Richie Gray (34) and Grant Gilchrist (33) are at lock, while hooker George Turner (30) packs down with props Pierre Schoeman (29) and Zander Fagerson (27).

Townsend has opted for a 6-2 split between forwards and backs on the bench.

"We believe it is going to be a battle at times, the forwards are going to have to work hard to win us quick ball and slow Ireland’s ball down. We have two back rows (Matt Fagerson and Luke Crosbie) on the bench to help us do that."

Graham is selected ahead of Kyle Steyn (29) on the wing after his four tries against the Romanians, with Duhan van der Merwe (28) and Kinghorn also in the back three.

Sione Tuipulotu (26) and Huw Jones (29) are the centre-pairing, with Finn Russell (31) at fly half and Ali Price (30) in the number nine jersey.

Scotland have lost their last eight tests against Ireland and their previous four victories in this fixture have all come by margins of five points or fewer.

The last time they scored four or more tries against Ireland was in 2007.

Scotland team:

15-Blair Kinghorn, 14-Darcy Graham, 13-Huw Jones, 12-Sione Tuipulotu, 11-Duhan van der Merwe, 10-Finn Russell, 9-Ali Price, 1-Pierre Schoeman, 2-George Turner, 3-Zander Fagerson, 4-Richie Gray, 5-Grant Gilchrist, 6-Jamie Ritchie, 7-Rory Darge, 8-Jack Dempsey

Replacements:

16-Ewan Ashman, 17-Rory Sutherland, 18-WP Nel, 19-Scott Cummings, 20-Matt Fagerson, 21-Luke Crosbie, 22-George Horne, 23-Ollie Smith

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