Ritson was a keen rugby union player as a youth and as an adult he played club rugby as a forward for Northern Football Club. In 1908 Ritson was approached to join and Anglo-Welsh team, a fore-runner of the British and Irish Lions, to tour Australia and New Zealand. A seven-month tour, run on a strictly amateur basis, would suggest that Ritson was independently wealthy to accept a place on the team. He played in the first three matches of the tour, scoring a try in the first game, a win over Wairarapa. On 6 June he was selected for the first Test match against New Zealand national team. The British team lost heavily, and although Riston played in a further five games of the tour he was not selected to play in the final two Test matches.