Jamie Ritchie always feels he is the best candidate to become Scotland captain this summer. He may be only 24 years old, but Edinburgh's back has a grown spirit on his young shoulders.
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Three years after completing his test arc at the Summer Tour of the Americas, Ritchie has established himself with Guinness Six Nations Championship player Hamish Watson as a lively duo of the Scottish flanks.
While Watson's performance in the 2021 championship has been widely acclaimed, Ritchie is arguably the most important moment of the historic victory in Paris.
With France in the lead and losing the clock, Ritchie won a critical missed penalty, and Duhan van der Merwe's memorable corner attempt climaxed.
A more influential way to end a campaign can hardly be imagined.
He has been one of Gregor Townsend's top picks for the past two years and his stability must have enabled Ritchie to take part in Watson's South African Lions Tour.
Instead, he will be lucky enough to bring his country into conflict with England A, Romania, and Georgia.
There are 17 uncapped players on the 37-man team
Ritchie will have as many coaching roles as the captain, but this is a job he enjoys.
After all, Ritchie has to grow quickly. As he explained in an interview with the BBC last year, Ritchie's responsibilities have gone beyond the rugby field.
When his son Oscar was born four weeks early, he was only 19. When he flew to London to make his first start for Edinburgh, Ritchie was troubled by his early arrival.
Since then, his daughter Ava has joined the family, allowing Ritchie to live a busy life at home, which also gave him a new perspective when things weren't going well on the pitch.
He said: “Young people can give themselves up, but when I'm done training I have a second job at home and I have to do my best. I can't sit down and worry about rugby.”
That's not to say he doesn't care about rugby, it's hard to imagine a more loyal player on the pitch.
Given all the great Scottish rowers of the past, it might be surprising to learn that Richie considers Andy Nicol to be one of his idols and that this pair of players are all from Dundee.
Before becoming an outstanding rugby player, Rich was a talented judoka player, winning a silver medal at the British Judo Championship as early as 2009.
In this sense, he followed in the footsteps of Thierry Dusautoir, another rugby player who switched from judoka.
Dusautoir is not always the most comfortable captain, but he will lead by example and give everything to the team. In Ritchie, Scotland may have just found its own leader.
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