Jamie Ritchie set to make Glasgow Warriors debut in Treviso

Jamie Ritchie is set to make his Glasgow Warriors debut in Saturday's United Rugby Championship match against Benetton in Treviso, assistant coach Nigel Carolan said. Carolan added that the time had come to "unleash" the former Scotland captain.

Ritchie spent 11 years with Glasgow's rivals Edinburgh after joining straight from school and was a pillar of that side before moving to the French Top 14. He signed from Perpignan in the summer but was sidelined for the opening months of the season because of ankle and Achilles tendon issues. The 30-year-old, capped 63 times, is now back in full training. He has moved to Scotstoun on a two-year deal.

"He's training fully. We feel he's integrated into the systems now very well. And he's itching to go," said Carolan.

"I think it was important to get the timing right. We didn't want to rush him," the Irishman added. "Obviously he had surgery over the summer so we didn't really want to push him. He's just moved to a new club and with all that going on, we felt the timing needed to be right."

"We could have involved him maybe last week but that was Ruwald van der Merwe's time. So I think the time has now come to unleash Jamie Ritchie in a Glasgow Warriors shirt." Warriors are second in the URC table after three matches, behind Edinburgh, and will be favourite against second-bottom Benetton this weekend. They finished top of the URC last season but were knocked out of the play-offs in the semi-finals by the Bulls, and the arrivals of Ritchie and Van der Merwe — with Scotland back row Jack Dempsey departing — were part of an evolution of Franco Smith's squad in the summer.

"It would be great if we get him involved this week, either starting or on the bench. It would be really positive to have him involved, especially ahead of Scotland's Nations Cup in a couple of weeks," Carolan said, underlining the immediate aim of integrating Ritchie into the matchday squad for the Treviso trip.