Fresh twist for Jamie Ritchie's French stint as Perpignan make big decision

The Catalan club lost to newly promoted Montauban on Saturday, their eighth defeat in a row, and they remain rooted to the bottom of the Top 14 without a point.

It’s been a tough introduction to French rugby for Ritchie who joined Perpignan in the summer from Edinburgh.

The club have toiled on the pitch and there have been ructions off it, too. Their home match against Racing 92 was marred by supporter unrest and Perpignan were fined €50,000 and ordered to play a home game away from Stade Aime Giral.

Cidre takes charge

The club then sacked two of their assistant coaches, David Marty and Gérald Bastide, in a bid to arrest then run of defeats without success. Now they have taken the decision to part company with Azéma, who has been in charge since 2023. Mathieu Cidre, the forwards coach, will take charge of the first team until further notice.

Azéma had said recently that he would be prepared to step aside if he no longer felt able to turn things around at Perpignan and things came to a head after the 29-22 defeat in Montauban on Saturday.

The match was already being billed as a relegation decider by some sections of the French media, despite this being only October. Montauban, who had also been without a win going into the match, won promotion last season via the play-offs after finishing back in sixth place in Pro D2.

Perpignan are on the road again this weekend and face another tough test, at high-flying Pau on Saturday. Ritchie, 29, has stood up during the difficult times and was recently made captain.

Gregor Townsend, the Scotland coach, said that he hoped that Ritchie’s returning to the Scotland squad for the autumn Test series would give the player a lift. The back-rower won’t be involved in this Saturday’s game against the USA in Edinburgh because it falls outside the international window and Townsend will select a team of home-based players only. But the flanker should be available for the subsequent games against New Zealand, Argentina and Tonga, all of which are at Murrayfield.