Jamie Ritchie has backed Edinburgh’s decision to keep faith with the bulk of their coaching team, despite a deeply disappointing season which saw them finish 12th in the URC.

The capital club announced this week that they had agreed a contract extension with forwards coach Stevie Lawrie, while defence coach Michael Todd is also staying on. Lead rugby consultant Steve Diamond is in temporary charge of the squad while the search goes on for a new head coach to succeed Mike Blair, who may well stay on next season as attack coach. If that is the case, it would mean that Gareth Baber is the only departure; the assistant coach is leaving this month when his contract expires.

But Ritchie, the team’s co-captain with Grant Gilchrist, believes a strong element of continuity is required.

“Continuity is the way to go,” the back-row forward said. “I don’t think we’re a hundred miles away as a club. We’ve had some disappointing results in the season, but our season as a whole was mirrored by a number of our games, none more so than the last one against Ulster. We played some of our best rugby of the season, but there were one or two moments where the scoreline got away from us, then the result looks way worse.

“That’s been the story of our season. We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve potentially been the better team for periods and the result has just not gone our way. We’ve got a couple of little bits wrong and it’s ended up costing us the game.

“There are a couple of things to be taken from the season, like those wins home and away against Castres, winning against Saracens and making the European play-off stages which was great for the club. But we need to string that all together.”

That URC match against Ulster was Edinburgh’s last of the season, leaving Ritchie and his team-mates to look on from the sidelines as Glasgow continue to play in two competitions. Yet while a degree of envy would only be natural, the Scotland skipper wished the Warriors well.

“The more Scottish players we have playing at a high level, getting into some good form, playing against high-quality opposition in pressure games, the better, in my opinion,” he added. “I wish them all the best in the games they’ve got coming up. I’ll be watching and hoping that they do well, because they’re our mates at the end of the day.”