Cotter snub left me wanting Scotland to lose – Jim Hamilton
Former Scotland second row Jim Hamilton has revealed that Vern Cotter spoke to him “like a dog” and misled him when dropping him from the 2015 World Cup squad and it left him wanting his own country to lose.
Hamilton, who won 63 caps for Scotland between 2006 and 2015, played in two of the three warm-up matches before being discarded to make way for Tim Swinson, who had been on honeymoon and not taken part in the pre-tournament training camp.
And, to add insult to injury, he says he was told by Cotter, who is now the head coach of Montpellier, that only three second rows were being included in the final squad when four were actually chosen.
“I got dropped from the 2015 World Cup squad and I was surprised I didn’t get in but the way that I was mishandled by the coach was the worst thing that ever happened in my career,” he revealed on The Rugby Pod.
“I ended up getting a phone call on a Saturday to tell me that I wasn’t in the squad as they were only taking three second rows, Richie Gray, Jonny Gray and Grant Gilchrist. I told him [Cotter] I was disappointed but that I appreciated his honesty and would be at home waiting.
“Greig Laidlaw then rang me on the Saturday night, asked if I’d seen the squad and said he was gutted I hadn’t made it but he mentioned that Tim Swinson was in the squad.
“I thought it was a mistake. Swinson had been on his honeymoon for six weeks and then got called up to the World Cup squad, having not done a day’s training.
“I flew up to Scotland after he told me, had a few beers on my own and went into the office at 6am the next day. I went in, shook Vern’s hand and said, ‘That’s the end of the road for me.’
“He told me there might be injuries but he had four second rows. He didn’t even have the decency or respect to tell me that he was taking four second rows and he told me that he was only taking three.
“I was in that team for 10 years, played 63 times for that country and gave everything and he didn’t even have the decency to tell me that straight. I think that is disgusting.”
Hamilton, who went on to win back-to-back European Cups with Saracens after retiring from international rugby, says he was in the best shape of his life in the build-up to the 2015 World Cup and that the perceived absence of a handshake might even have contributed to his omission.
“I was the fittest I’d ever been when I turned up to the pre-World Cup training camp. I got 19.2 in the Yo-Yo test, which was the highest score I’d ever got, and I beat all the other front five forwards. That meant that I had to train with all the back rows when we got to France and were training at altitude, while the other front five forwards were doing strongman sessions,” he said.
“I was a hundred metres behind the next person and Vern was shouting, ‘Show me how much you want to be here’.
“My eyes were in the back of my head but I was just trying to keep my head down and keep going.
“I played in two of the three warm-up matches and we won both of them against Ireland and Italy away. I actually started in the Italy game. I wasn’t meant to but Grant Gilchrist was ill on the day of the game. We won the game in horrible conditions and the next morning we had to be down for team breakfast at 5am before heading home.
“Vern had this rule that everyone had to shake each other’s hands in the morning, which I didn’t agree with. Nobody was shaking hands that morning because it was so early, everyone was rushing and some guys were ill but Vern smashed his hand on the table, stood up and called me out.
“He said, ‘You should know better. Get outside now. You should be shaking people’s hands!’
“He was speaking to me like a dog.”
Hamilton also revealed that Cotter didn’t like the fact that his “enforcer” image on the pitch didn’t match his more relaxed personality off it and says the whole episode meant he couldn’t even watch Scotland’s games at the World Cup and he even ended up wanting them to lose.
“Honestly, it got to the point where I didn’t want Scotland to win. There was a part of me that did because my mates were there but deep down I didn’t want them to win,” he said.
“I could sit here and say that I wanted to Scotland to win the World Cup but I was raging. I couldn’t even watch their games. Someone told me Scotland were beating Australia and I was devastated.
“The competitive edge inside you does say that if you’re not playing, you don’t want them to do well.
“It took me about a year to get over that and want Scotland to do well again.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Who's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to commentsSo let me get this straight. Say you have the dominant scrum. You are 99% sure you can go for a scrum pushover try on the line to win the game. The opposition knows it too. They give away a silly tap kick instead. You are now not allowed to scrum. This is ridiculous! *%@ing the game up as usual! The fact that the attacking teams are not allowed to scrum from a held up over the line is just as ridiculous. Really world rugby? Careful people might start a rebel league called True Rugby or Real Rugby.
72 Go to comments12 subs during a game? How has that been allowed to happen NB? I hate when the game goes in this monopolistic direction closing up shop, it just becomes non sport. Btw have you seen anything of how Liam Coltman was tracking for Lyon? He has just signed to return to Otago though we have a couple of young hookers developing here. He was a popular gentle natured character down here and I’m glad to see him back but maybe he will be a mentor primarily?
4 Go to commentsGreat breakdown and the global politics always confuses me a little. The southern hemisphere seems to be left out a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it. Club challenge could be a step in the right direction
4 Go to commentsSince he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
11 Go to commentswell - they only played against 14 men and had the TMO team on their side - and still should have lost… so actually that makes sense.
32 Go to commentsSouthern hemisphere Rugby is exactly that, boring. Northern Hemisphere Rugby is soooo much more entertaining and better with better players.
2 Go to commentsIf he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
4 Go to commentsIt was so boring
2 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
32 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
72 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
11 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
32 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
11 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
11 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
5 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
4 Go to comments